.-.,»*^'^ 


Division 


Section 


.■<li^^ 


.1)2  & 


THE  PILGRIM  FAITH 


i,^      11     o 


THE   PILGRIM   FAITH 


BY 


'/ 


OZORA  S.  DAVIS 

President  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

BOSTON  NEW  YORK         CHICAGO 


COPYRIGHT,   1913 
BY  LUTHER  H.   CARY 


THE     PLIMPTON  TRESS 
NORWOOD    MASS -US    A 


GRATEFULLY  INSCRIBED  TO 

FIVE  CONGREGATIONS  OF  THE  PILGRIM  FAITH 

SOUTH:     ST.  JOHNSBURY,  VERMONT 

FIRST:     SPRINGFIELD,  VERMONT 

CENTRAL:     NEWTONVILLE,  MASSACHUSETTS 

SOUTH:    NEW  BRITAIN,  CONNECTICUT 

NEW  FIRST:    CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


PREFACE 

In  a  few  years  the  three-lmndredtli  anni- 
versary of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  at  Plymouth  will  be  celebrated.  In 
anticipation  of  this  event,  and  for  its  own 
sake  as  well,  it  is  fitting  that  an  estimate  of 
the  achievements  of  the  Congregationalists 
in  America  and  of  their  representatives  in 
foreign  lands  should  be  made.  This  is  un- 
dertaken in  the  following  pages.  No  at- 
tempt has  been  made  to  write  a  history  of 
the  churches  that  hold  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
nor  to  discuss  the  form  of  church  govern- 
ment which  they  maintained.  Nor  has  the 
subject  been  treated  exhaustively.  Many 
events  and  names  have  been  omitted,  not  be- 
cause they  have  been  forgotten,  but  on  ac- 
count of  space  limitations.  We  have 
endeavored  to  give  prominence  to  those 
movements  and  leaders  which  represent  in 
a  typical  way  the  genius  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
and  exemplify  its  contribution  to  the  spirit- 
ual history  of  the  last  three  centuries. 

The  writer  is  a  lover  of  the  faith  and  or- 
der of  the  Congregationalists  and  this  book 
is  necessarily  colored  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
a  reporter  who  rejoices  in  the  heroic  achieve- 


Preface 

ments  of  the  noble  souls  whose  deeds  he 
records.  The  human  element  in  the  story 
has  been  kept  constantly  in  mind ;  the  report 
has  been  cast  in  the  terms  of  concrete  narra- 
tive and  incident  in  order  that  it  may  be 
vivid  and  interesting. 

Chicago  Theological  Seminabt, 
August,  1913. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    The   Origin   axd  Definition  of  the 

Faith 3 

II  Three    Centuries    op    Service     .     .  21 

III  The  Faith   in   Evangelistic   Action  41 

IV  The  Faith  Founding  the  Free  State  59 
V  The  Faith  and  Education       ...  79 

VI     The  Faith  on  the  Frontier    .      .      .  107 

VII     The  Faith     and     the     Undeveloped 

Races 129 

VIII  The  Faith   in  Foreign  Lands      .      .   151 

IX  The  Faith  and  Christian  Theology  173 

X  The  Faith  in  Literature  ....  191 

XI  The  Faith  and  Its  Leaders     .      .      .211 

XII    The  Faith  and  Universal  Brother- 
hood   245 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Delfts- 
haven,   July,    1620     ....   Frontispiece 

FACINQ 
PAGE 

The  Manor  House  at  Scrooby 4 

Plymouth   Eock 22 

Graham   Taylor 42 

Charles   G.   Finney 42 

Dwight   L.   Moody 42 

Francis  E.  Clark 42 

Josiah  Strong 42 

The  Mayflower  Compact 60 

The   Founding   of   Harvard    College  ...  78 

J.  H.   Fairchild 80 

Timothy  Dwight 80 

Mark  Hopkins 80 

WiUiam  G.  Tucker 80 

James  B.  Angell 80 

Eliot   Preaching   to   the    Indians          .      .      .  108 

First  Buildings,  Fisk  University,  1866     .      .  130 

Robert   College,    Constantinople      ....  152 

Syrian  Protestant  College,  Beirut,  Syria     .      ,  152 

Henry  Churchill  King 174 

William   D.   Hyde 174 

Cyrus  Northrup 174 

Ozora  S.   Davis 174 

W,  Douglas  Mackenzie 174 

Plymouth  in  1622 178 


List    of   Illustrations 

FACING 
PAGE 

Jonathan   Edwards 192 

John  Cotton 192 

Edwards   A.   Park 192 

Leonard   Bacon 192 

Horace  Bushnell 192 

S.  Parkes  Cadman 196 

NeweU  Dwight  Hillis 196 

Frank  TV.  Giinsaulus 196 

Charles  R.  Brown 196 

Charles  E.  Jefferson 196 

Henry  M.  Dexter 212 

LjTnan  Abbott 212 

George  A.   Gordon 212 

Newman  Smyth 212 

George  P.  Fisher 212 

Gen.  O.  0.  Howard 246 

Samuel  C.  Armstrong 246 

Henry  "Ward   Beecher 246 

Washington   Gladden 246 

Amory  H.  Bradford 246 

The  Commission  of  Nineteen 248 


I 

THE  OEIGIX  AXD  DEFINITION  OF 
THE  FAITH 


THE    OEIGIN    AND    DEFINITION    OF 
THE  FAITH 

IT  was  Saturday,  December  5,  1620.  A 
cold,  raw  wind  blew  in  from  the  sea  and 
made  the  little  group  of  men  who  were  dry- 
ing their  clothes  around  the  fire  on  Clark's 
Island  shiver,  in  spite  of  the  bright  sunshine. 
For  three  days  they  had  been  drenched  with 
spray  in  their  battle  with  high  winds  and 
angry  waves.  Now,  exhausted,  they  were 
spending  the  day  resting  while  they  dried 
their  stuff  and  made  up  their  minds  what 
to  do  next. 

For  two  weeks  the  Mayflower  had  swung 
at  anchor  in  the  shelter  of  what  is  now  the 
harbor  of  Provincetown.  Two  weeks  had 
been  spent  by  the  men  in  fruitless  search  for 
a  place  in  which  to  build  shelter  for  the  loved 
ones  who  suffered  daily  from  their  confine- 
ment in  the  ship.  Winter  was  approaching 
rapidly;  rations  were  scanty  and  were  fast 
diminishing.  Many  were  ill  on  board  the 
little  vessel  and  some  were  dead,  and  upon 
this  little  group  on  Clark's  Island  lay  the 
heavy  burden  of  finding  a  permanent  dwell- 
[3] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

ing  place  on  land  and  that  riglit  speedily. 
Tlie  little  company  must  liave  had  hearts  full 
of  gratitude  for  the  cheering  sunshine  of 
this  Saturday  and  for  the  rest  that  the  more 
clement  weather  and  the  needed  relaxation 
brought,  for  it  would  enable  them  to  pursue 
their  search  with  vigor  on  the  morrow. 
But  no !  They  were  not  thinking  simply  of 
preparations  to  push  on.  For  we  read  in 
Bradford's  History  that  'Hhis  being  the  last 
day  of  the  week  they  prepared  there  to  keep 
the  Sabbath."  Few  deeds  in  history  are 
more  worthy  of  a  monument  than  this. 
These  men  were  not  unmindful  of  the  stress 
upon  them  to  find  a  home  for  those  on  ship- 
board. They  shared  with  them  the  anxiety 
and  the  fear  which  the  strange  land  had 
brought  to  them  all.  But  in  their  hearts 
there  was  an  impelling  force,  more  mighty 
than  the  needs  of  the  body — the  need  of  their 
souls  in  their  obligation  to  God.  No  bodily 
ease  that  they  might  gain  could  compensate 
for  the  sacrifice  of  obedience  to  their  duty 
to  worship  God  on  the  Sabbath  and  to  rest 
from  all  labor. 

And  so,  to  quote  another  historian,  ''On 
the  Sabbath  day  wee  rested," — a  simple 
record  of  a  sublime  deed.  It  was  in  the 
shelter  of  a  large  boulder  near  the  middle  of 
the  island,  tradition  tells  us,  that  these 
pioneers  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  held  their  sim- 
ple Sunday  worship.    And  it  is  fitting  that 

[■t] 


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Definition    of    the   Faith 

upon  this  boulder  tlie  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society  should  have  cut  the  record 
of  that  day,  ''On  the  Sabbath  wee  rested." 
This  rock  may  well  take  its  place  with  the 
more  famous  one  at  Plymouth,  as  one  of  the 
shrines  to  which  followers  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  turn  for  inspiration. 

Whence  came  these  sturdy  people  who 
had  learned  to  value  principle  more  than 
life?  What  were  the  sources  from  which 
the  group  under  the  rock  on  Clark's  Island 
and  the  equally  brave  band  in  the  May- 
flower drew  their  inspiration?  Who  had 
been  their  teachers  and  what  were  the  great 
principles  for  which  they  dared  so  much? 

To  answer  all  these  questions  in  full  would 
be  a  long  and  difficult  task  which  would  take 
us  far  back  to  the  days  of  Wyclif  and  Hus. 
But  we  may  well  begin  with  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII,  whose  restlessness  under  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  resulted  in  the  Act  of 
Supremacy,  passed  in  1534.  By  its  pro- 
visions the  King  was  made  ''the  only  su- 
preme head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." Thus  final  authority  in  the  Church 
was  taken  from  the  Pope.  This  action,  how- 
ever, did  not  make  any  change  in  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Church,  nor  did  it  make  the 
Church  of  England  really  Protestant. 

But  since  the  days  of  Wyclif,  Englishmen 
had  been  reading  the  Bible  and  there  had 
developed  in  the  minds  of  many  of  them  a 

[5] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

belief  in  the  riglit  of  every  person  to  come 
into  direct  relations  with  his  Heavenly 
Father.  There  came  to  be  a  large  group  of 
men  who  wished  to  press  the  Reformation 
farther,  and  their  influence  prevailed  during 
the  brief  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Had  Ed- 
ward lived,  the  English  Reformation  might 
have  come  more  quickly  than  it  did. 

When  Catholic  Queen  Mary  came  to  the 
throne,  in  1553,  a  violent  reaction  set  in  and 
the  leaders  in  the  movement  for  religious 
liberty  under  Henry  and  Edward  were 
driven  into  exile.  They  took  refuge  at 
Geneva  and  there  they  came  under  the  in- 
fluence of  John  Calvin,  who  was  preaching 
the  principles  of  free  government  in  church 
and  state.  Upon  the  death  of  Mary  in  1558 
Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  and  immedi- 
ately revived  many  of  the  acts  in  relation  to 
the  government  of  the  Church  which  had 
been  passed  under  Henry  and  Edward. 
The  exiles  now  returned  home  and  pushed 
the  work  of  reformation  with  new  zeal. 
They  soon  became  the  leaders  of  a  strong 
party  which  wished  to  ** purify  the  church 
in  England  not  only  until  it  should  be  rid  of 
all  taint  of  papal  authority,  but  also  purged 
of  those  false  doctrines  which  lay  behind  the 
immorality  of  the  people."  They  were  not 
content  merely  with  changes  in  government, 
but  were  passionately  united  also  in  the 
desire  to  accomplish  a  moral  reformation. 
[6] 


Definition   of    the   Faith 

From  this  fact  tliey  became  known  as 
Puritans. 

There  soon  arose  a  sharp  difference  in 
judgment  as  to  how  this  reform  in  morals 
could  be  most  surely  accomplished.  The 
Puritans  believed  that  the  best  way  was  to 
remain  in  the  Church  of  England  and  there 
work  steadily  and  patiently  to  purge  it  of 
errors.  The  smallest  party,  however,  held 
that  the  Church  had  grown  so  corrupt  that 
the  only  way  in  which  it  could  be  reformed 
was  by  the  separation  from  it  of  all  those 
who  loved  it  and  accepted  the  new  doctrines, 
in  order  that  they  might  work  from  without 
for  its  complete  reformation.  This  small 
and  very  radical  party  became  known  as 
Separatists.  They  represented  the  end  of 
a  movement  out  of  Roman  Catholicism 
through  the  Church  of  England  and  Puri- 
tanism into  a  devoted  party  which  desired 
to  carry  the  Protestant  Eeformation  to  its 
full  and  logical  conclusion. 

When  the  Separatists  attempted  to  meet 
for  simple  worship  and  to  talk  of  their  com- 
mon faith,  they  found  that  the  law  of  Eng- 
land forbade  them  to  hold  any  religious  serv- 
ice which  did  not  follow  the  ritual  prescribed 
in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  An  illegal 
meeting  was  called  a  conventicle,  and  the 
police  were  alert  and  severe  in  their  efforts 
to  prevent  every  such  gathering.  Bitter  per- 
secution resulted.  Undoubtedly  the  Sep- 
[7] 


The   Pilgrim   F  aith 

aratists  tended  to  become  more  intense  in 
their  convictions  because  of  what  tbey  suf- 
fered. Oppression  always  results  in  such 
reaction. 

As  early  probably  as  1567  a  group  of  these 
Separatists  was  meeting  secretly  in  London. 
In  their  defense  they  called  themselves  ''a 
poor  congregation  whom  God  hath  separated 
from  the  churches  of  England,  and  from  the 
mingled  and  false  worshipping  therein  used." 
This   congregation  soon  became  scattered. 

Then  came  Eobert  Browne,  an  erratic, 
gifted,  and  unfortunate  man,  whose  writ- 
ings without  doubt  contain  the  first  definite 
statement  of  the  principles  of  church 
government  used  by  Congregationalists. 
Browne's  name  was  later  given  in  derision 
to  the  Separatists  and  Shakespeare  uses  it 
contemptuously  in  this  line : 

''I  had  as  lief  be  a  Brownist  as  a  poli- 
tician." ^  Browne  did  not  succeed  in  estab- 
lishing a  congregation  which  could  success- 
fully work  out  his  principles  and  before  his 
death  he  returned  to  the  Communion  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

There  are  traces  of  Separatist  meetings  in 
London  about  1587,  and  the  names  of  three 
men  became  especially  prominent  in  con- 
nection with  them.  Henry  Barrowe,  John 
Greenwood,  and  John  Penry,  we  are  told, 
suffered  arrest  and  imprisonment  about  that 

1  Twelfth  Night,  iii;  2,  34. 

[8] 


Definition   of   the   Faith 

time  for  their  Separatist  doctrines.  The 
Pilgrim  Faith  began  as  the  Apostolic  Church 
began — with  the  martyrdom  of  those  who 
had  seen  the  vision  and  would  not  surrender 
the  truth  that  they  had  found.  In  these  days 
when  freedom  is  our  birthright  it  is  worth 
while  to  remember  what  a  price  was  paid 
for  it.  In  1593  Barrowe,  Greenwood,  and 
Penry  were  hanged  because  they  would  not 
give  up  their  convictions,  and  their  names 
abide  as  the  first  martyrs  of  Congregational- 
ism. 

The  congregation  whose  leaders  thus  suf- 
fered death  shared  in  the  misery  if  not  in 
the  mortal  end  of  their  brave  ministers. 
They  were  finally  compelled  to  flee  to  Hoi- » 
land  and  at  length  reached  Amsterdam, 
where  their  history  was  a  stormy  one. 

Up  to  the  year  1603,  when  James  I  came 
to  the  throne  of  England,  the  general  out- 
line of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  had  been  laid  down 
and  men  had  lost  their  lives  in  the  defense 
of  it;  but  no  congregation  had  arisen  whose 
leaders  or  members  were  wise  and  strong 
enough  to  furnish  a  successful  example  of 
the  way  in  which  a  Congregational  church 
could  be  governed  and  its  work  carried  on. 
The  reason  is  not  difficult  to  understand. 
The  idea  of  freedom  in  the  church  was  new. 
It  is  no  easy  matter  for  a  party  or  a  person 
to  meet  the  responsibility  of  newly-acquired 
liberty  and  it  therefore  took  time  for  the 
[9] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

early  defenders  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  col- 
lect and  train  a  congregation  that  was  able 
to  meet  the  test  of  full  freedom  in  church 
government. 

Such  a  congregation  at  last  was  gathered 
in  the  little  town  of  Scrooby  in  the  north  of 
England.  Like  almost  every  successful 
movement,  this  congregation  owes  its 
permanence  in  a  very  large  degree  to  its 
leaders.  Its  members,  to  be  sure,  were  far 
more  stable  and  strong  than  were  those  of 
the  earlier  congregation,  the  history  of 
which  is  so  unhappy.  They  were  for  the  most 
part  farmers  and  they  came  from  a  region 
in  which  there  seems  to  have  been  a  high 
level  of  religious  life.  It  was  in  their 
leaders,  however,  that  these  people  were  par- 
ticularly fortunate.  William  Brewster  was 
the  postmaster  at  Scrooby  and  lived  in  a 
large  house  where  the  people  could  come 
together  for  worship.  William  Bradford, 
a  young  man  from  a  neighboring  village, 
was  later  to  become  one  of  the  noblest  of 
colonial  leaders  in  New  England.  John 
Eobinson,  the  pastor,  was  a  learned,  prac- 
tical, devoted  minister.  Led  by  these  three 
men,  this  congregation  at  Scrooby  became 
the  first  example  of  a  permanent  and  suc- 
cessful church  founded  on  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

Their  secret  assembling,  however,  soon 
brought  upon  the  band  the  hostility  of  the 
police.  The  meetings  were  broken  up  and 
[10] 


Definition    of    the   Faith 

the  members  of  the  congregation  were  ar- 
rested ;  so  they,  too,  decided  to  go  to  Holland. 
This  was  no  easy  task,  for  they  were  for- 
bidden to  leave  the  country;  but  in  one  way 
and  another  they  escaped,  and  by  1608  had 
reached  Amsterdam.  A  few  months  later 
they  moved  to  Leyden. 

Leyden  was  still  vibrating  with  the  deeds 
of  thirty  years  before,  when  the  sturdy 
burghers,  besieged  by  Philip  of  Spain  and 
driven  to  the  verge  of  starvation,  had  stood 
on  her  walls  and  hurled  their  defiance  in 
the  face  of  the  Spanish  king:  ''We  will  eat 
our  left  arms  and  fight  with  our  right.  We 
will  kill  our  wives  and  little  ones  and  burn 
our  towns  before  we  will  surrender  our  lib- 
erties." Wliat  they  had  done  had  been  to 
open  their  dykes  and  flood  their  lands  so  as 
to  enable  the  ships  bearing  relief  to  reach 
the  town.  Then  King  Philip,  disgusted  with 
such  obstinacy,  had  returned  to  Spain  to  take 
up  the  pleasanter  and  more  lucrative  occu- 
pation of  burning  saints.  How  the  tales  of 
the  heroism  of  these  devout  folk  of  Leyden 
must  have  encouraged  the  weary  hearts  of 
the  Pilgrims  and  inspired  them  with  new 
zeal  for  their  sacred  beliefs!  The  congre- 
gation increased  rapidly  now,  until  it  num- 
bered nearly  three  hundred.  A  large  piece 
of  property  was  purchased  and  here  Eobin- 
son  and  many  of  the  families  lived  in  close 
neighborhood.    Eobinson  came  to  occupy  a 

[11] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

higMy  honorable  position  in  the  city  and 
was  recognized  as  a  leader  in  the  theologi- 
cal discussions  of  the  time.  Many  considera- 
tions, however,  led  the  congregation  to  look 
eagerly  toward  America  as  the  place  of  their 
permanent  home.  There  was  no  reasonable 
hope  of  permanent  growth  for  an  English- 
speaking  church  in  a  foreign  land.  Their 
leaders  were  growing  old.  Their  children 
were  yielding  to  evil  influences  in  Holland, 
entering  the  army,  and  forsaking  the  ideals 
of  their  parents.  Also,  the  missionary  mo- 
tive was  strong  in  the  congregation  and 
America  afforded  an  opportunity  for  mis- 
sionary service. 

So,  after  careful  consideration,  it  was  de- 
cided that  the  larger  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion should  go  to  America,  leaving  the  older 
and  weaker  minority  with  Pastor  Eobinson 
with  the  idea  that  they  follow  when  the  new 
settlement  should  have  been  made  and  con- 
ditions should  warrant  the  change.  The 
church  as  a  whole  was  finally  to  move;  but 
only  the  stronger  section  was  to  go  first. 

It  was  difficult,  however,  to  make  the  busi- 
ness arrangements  for  such  a  movement. 
As  a  congregation  of  people  out  of  relation 
to  the  Church  of  England,  these  Separatists 
were  regarded  as  unwelcome  colonists. 
King  James  was  willing  to  go  only  so  far  as 
to  give  them  verbal  assurance  that  they 
would  be  tolerated  as  long  as  they  behaved 
[12] 


Definition   of   the   Faith 

peaceably  in  the  new  home  which  they  were 
trying  to  make  for  themselves.  When  so  un- 
certain a  royal  sanction  as  the  King's  word 
has  been  secured,  there  remained  the  finan- 
cial arrangements  for  the  voyage.  The  peo- 
ple were  poor  and  were  obliged  to  mortgage 
in  advance  their  earnings  in  America.  This 
they  cheerfully  did,  so  eager  were  they  to 
move  to  the  new  world.  Finally  all  arrange- 
ments were  completed,  and  the  ''Pilgrims,'^ 
as  they  are  called  by  William  Bradford,  left 
Delftshaven  for  England.  One  of  the  two 
ships  in  which  they  later  sailed  proved  un- 
seaworthy,  so  it  came  about  that  the  May-  .- 
flower  alone  made  the  voyage  from  Ply- 
mouth, England,  with  one  hundred  and  two 
passengers,  most  of  whom  were  members  of 
the  Scrooby-Leyden  church.  It  was  a  long, 
tempestuous  journey;  but  there  were  stout 
hearts  in  the  staunch  little  ship.  William 
Brewster,  William  Bradford,  John  Carver, 
Samuel  Fuller,  and  Miles  Standish  were  the 
leaders.  At  last  the  voyagers  reached  Cape 
Cod,  which  is  north  of  the  place  where  they 
had  intended  to  land. 

Such  were  the  antecedents  of  the  little 
group  of  Sunday  worshipers  under  the  boul- 
der on  Clark's  Island.  Is  it  any  wonder, 
then,  that  they  consecrated  by  an  act  of  su- 
preme devotion  to  God  this  first  Sabbath 
spent  in  the  new  land  they  had  come  to  pos- 
sess? On  the  21st  of  December,  1620,— fif- 
[13] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

teen  days  later — the  other  passengers  from 
the  Mayfloiver  landed  at  Plymouth  and  with 
those  who  had  preceded  them  on  shore  set  up 
for  the  first  time  in  history  a  community  in 
which  all  men  should  be  free  and  equal. 

This  is  the  brief  story  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers.  That  which  carried  them  through 
suffering  and  exile  was  the  body  of  convic- 
tions which  we  call  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  held  to  a  certain  sys- 
tem of  thought  about  God, — or  theology, — 
and  to  a  definite  body  of  principles  concern- 
ing church  government, — polity.  They  be- 
lieved that  their  doctrines  and  their  forms 
of  government  were  both  defined  and  com- 
manded in  the  Bible.  They  always  moved 
out  from  their  one  source  of  authority,  the 
Bible,  in  all  their  thinking  and  in  all 
their  practical  conduct.  The  Bible,  there- 
fore, was  their  only  rule  of  faith  and  life. 
They  sometimes  spoke  of  their  theological 
doctrines  as  their  ''faith,"  and  of  their  prin- 
ciples of  government,  which  they  considered 
to  be  valid  for  church  and  state  alike,  as  their 
''order."  The  Pilgrim  Faith,  as  it  is  de- 
scribed here,  includes  both. 

At  the  beginning  it  ought  to  be  made  clear 
that  the  Pilgrim  Faith  never  has  been  held 
in  any  changeless  form.  It  has  never  been 
considered  as  a  crystal.  It  has  always  been 
conceived  as  a  living  and  growing  organism. 
It  has  its  power  residing  within  it  and  there- 
[14] 


Definition   of   the   Faith 

fore  can  take  on  fresh  forms  as  new  life 
manifests  itself.  We  can  speak  truly  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  as  a  "living"  faith. 

On  the  side  of  theology,  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
was,  at  the  beginning,  defined  in  the  terms 
of  the  teaching  of  John  Calvin.  The  stand- 
ards of  the  Calvinists, — the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith,  the  Shorter  Catechism, 
and  the  Longer  Catechism,  which  were  pre- 
pared about  1648, — put  into  form  that  which 
from  the  first  had  been  and  for  a  long  time 
continued  to  be  the  theological  side  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith.  This  was  the  great  system 
which  gathers  up  the  teaching  of  Paul,  Au- 
gustine, and  Calvin.  It  exalts  God  to  the 
position  of  supreme  Sovereign,  and  declares 
that  the  purpose  for  which  the  universe  was 
created  is  to  show  the  glorious  perfection  of 
God.  It  teaches  the  dreadful  nature  and  the 
deadly  consequences  of  human  sin.  It  af- 
firms that  God,  in  mercy,  and  because  of  the 
unmerited  favor  or  grace  which  he  shows  to 
man,  saves  man  from  sin  and  keeps  him  in 
everlasting  life.  It  makes  Christ,  the  divine 
Eedeemer,  the  central  fact  in  the  saving 
process  of  God.  It  affirms  the  sovereign  au- 
thority of  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith  and 
life. 

These    theological    positions    have    been 

modified  at  different  times  in  the  history  of 

the    Pilgrim   Faith.     When   John   Eobinson 

bade  farewell  to  the   stronger  part  of  his 

[15] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

congregation  at  Delftsliaven  he  used  certain 
very  remarkable  words;  lie  charged  the  de- 
parting Pilgrims  to  remember  that  they  must 
not  simply  ''stick  where  Luther  and  Calvin 
left  them,  but  go  on  to  receive  any  truth  that 
God  should  reveal  to  them";  "for,"  he  said, 
*'he  was  very  confident  the  Lord  had  more 
truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  His 
holy  Word."  This  puts  clearly  that  spirit 
of  the  open  mind  and  full  and  free  inquiry 
which  always  has  marked  those  who  have 
held  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

The  second  part  of  the  Faith  has  been  con- 
cerned with  the  forms  of  government  which 
the  Christian  brotherhood  has  power  to  or- 
ganize for  itself.  At  first  glance  this  might 
seem  to  be  an  unimportant  matter,  concerned 
with  what  is  external  rather  than  with  what 
is  essential.  The  form  of  popular  gov- 
ernment, however,  is  always  an  expression 
of  those  great  ideals  and  fundamental 
principles  concerning  freedom  and  justice 
which  are  held  by  the  people,  and  it  is  most 
important  to  know  whether  those  principles 
represent  the  ideals  of  freedom  and  brother- 
hood or  are  an  expression  of  special  privilege 
and  caste.  The  men  who  defined  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  had  thought  through  the  whole  matter. 
They  believed  that  God  himself  declared  the 
principles  of  free  government.  They  were 
convinced  that  the  New  Testament  explicitly 
teaches  the  way  in  which  a  church  should  be 
[16] 


Definition   of    the   Faith 

organized.  The  main  outlines  of  tlieir  belief 
in  regard  to  polity  are  as  follows :  Any  com- 
pany of  Christians  uniting  in  a  Covenant  for 
religious  worship  and  work  is  a  true  church 
of  Christ.  Therefore  a  church  is  not  consti- 
tuted by  any  person  or  society  that  bestows 
rights  or  privileges  upon  a  congregation  of 
people,  but  a  congregation  becomes  a  church 
by  virtue  of  the  people's  own  voluntary  as- 
sociation and  their  native  right  to  claim  their 
name  and  function.  Every  member  of  such 
a  church  has  equal  rights  and  privileges  with 
every  other  member,  except  where  common 
sense  dictates  certain  differences  in  function 
due  to  age  or  especial  qualification  for  pecul- 
iar service.  These  members  together  have 
all  the  power  necessarj^  to  organize  them- 
selves into  a  church,  to  choose  their  own  of- 
ficers and  determine  official  duties,  and  to 
govern  themselves  fully  in  all  other  ways. 
Therefore  no  body  of  churches  may  legislate 
or  judge  for  an  individual  congregation,  ex- 
cept in  the  way  of  giving  free  counsel,  which 
has  weight  according  to  its  wisdom  and  not 
because  of  any  official  authority  possessed 
by  the  group  of  churches.  No  bishop  may 
rule  a  Congregational  church  from  without 
itself.  It  is  a  pure  democracy,  governing  it- 
self;  it  is  responsible  only  to  Christ,  its  sole, 
invisible  Head.  Among  the  independent 
churches,  however,  there  is  a  strong  bond  of 
fellowship,  which  leads  them  freely  to  seek 
[17] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

one  another's  counsel  in  all  matters  of  com- 
mon interest  and  importance.  In  settling 
their  relationships  with  their  pastors,  in  de- 
ciding cases  of  discipline,  and  in  administer- 
ing their  common  work  in  cities,  comities, 
states,  and  the  nation,  the  churches  must 
work  together,  although  each  is  fully 
equipped  to  govern  its  local  affairs. 

The  way  in  which  to  represent  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  in  church  government  is  to  depict  it  as 
an  ellipse.  One  focus  stands  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  local  church  and  its  full 
power  of  self-government.  The  other  repre- 
sents the  fellowship  of  the  churches  in  coun- 
sel and  in  the  common  business  of  adminis- 
tration. When  either  of  these  is  neglected 
the  essential  character  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
is  impaired.  When  both  are  fully  main- 
tained the  Pilgrim  Faith  becomes  efficient. 

More  stress  has  been  laid  upon  one  than 
upon  the  other  of  these  principles  at  differ- 
ent times  in  the  history  of  the  Congrega- 
tional churches  and  changes  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  church  affairs  have  been  made 
correspondingly.  ''More  light"  has  broken 
forth,  as  Eobinson  was  sure  that  it  would. 
Nothing,  however,  has  ever  removed  the  two 
ideals  of  democracy  and  fellowship  from 
their  central  place  in  the  consciousness  and 
the  practical  activity  of  those  who  have  held 
the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

[18] 


II 

THREE  CENTURIES  OF  SERVICE 


n 

THREE  CENTURIES  OF  SERVICE 

THE  three  centuries  of  service  which  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  has  rendered  to  the  moral 
and  religious  life  of  the  United  States  may 
be  divided  into  three  periods : 

I  1620-1740.  The  history  of  this  period 
is  confined  almost  entirely  to  New  England 
and  is  concerned  with  the  settlement  of  the 
colonies.  The  chief  interest  in  this  period 
is  the  discussion  of  the  forms  of  church  gov- 
ernment. 

II  1740-1850.  This  is  a  period  of  theo- 
logical interest.  New  conceptions  of  truth 
arise  after  the  deep  religious  movement 
known  as  the  Great  Awakening,  and  the  uni- 
form doctrinal  positions  of  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  are  much  disturbed. 

III  1850-1913.  The  period  of  modern 
Congregationalism.  This  is  marked  by  dis- 
cussions in  both  doctrine  and  government. 
It  is  a  time  of  theological  ferment  and  the 
adjustment  of  institutions  to  modem  needs. 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  make  a 
brief  survey  of  the  outstanding  items  of  in- 
terest in  each  of  these  three  periods. 
[21] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

The  men  and  women  who  came  to  Ply- 
mouth in  1620  and  established  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  in  America  were  as  brave  and  devoted 
as  any  group  that  ever  suffered  for  freedom 
alid  truth.  During  the  first  winter  they 
>/struggled  against  terrible  physical  hard- 
ships. More  than  one-half  of  their  number 
died  and  the  signs  of  the  graves  were  re- 
moved in  order  that  the  hostile  Indians  might 
not  know  how  sickness  had  depleted  the 
colony. 

When  the  spring  came  and  the  Mayflower 
set  sail  for  the  homeland,  not  one  of  the  little 
band  of  Pilgrims  went  back;  strangers  in  a 
strange  land,  they  watched  the  white  sails 
disappear  and  then  turned  to  their  heroic 
adventure,  bringing  their  land  under  culti- 
vation, and  waiting  for  good  news  and  rein- 
forcements from  their  comrades  across  the 
sea.  It  was  a  glorious  beginning  of  the  un- 
broken story  of  dauntless  courage  and  un- 
wavering trust  in  God  with  which  the  Con- 
gregationalists  have  done  their  work  as  pio- 
neers in  America. 

Meantime  the  Puritans  in  England  also 
were  fighting  a  hard  battle  for  their  prin- 
ciples. They  came  into  collision  with  James 
I  and  his  bishops  on  the  matter  of  authority 
and  were  bitterly  persecuted  in  the  Church 
courts.  The  conflict  grew  more  intense  after 
1625,  when  Charles  I  became  king.  The  re- 
sult was  that  thousands  of  Puritans  came 
[22] 


Three   Centuries   of   Service 

to  America  between  1630  and  1640.  They 
were  influenced  in  this  action  in  part  by  the 
reports  that  were  received  from  Plymouth. 
The  newcomers  were  from  English  families 
who  were  the  very  strongest  in  point  of  char- 
acter, and  their  leaders  were  ministers  who 
had  been  educated  at  the  universities.  Their 
departure  meant  a  very  great  loss  to  Eng- 
land, but  it  brought  to  America  a  high- 
spirited  and  noble  type  of  colonist. 

The  chief  settlements  of  these  later  Puri- 
tans were  in  Massachusetts.  They  came  to 
Salem  and  Boston  and  there  founded  their 
colonies.  At  the  beginning  they  were 
staunch  Puritans  in  their  relations  with  the 
Church  of  England.  One  of  their  leaders 
said:  *'We  do  not  go  to  New  England  as 
separatists  from  the  Church  of  England; 
though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  cor- 
ruptions in  it." 

When  once  they  were  in  the  new  country, 
however,  and  when  they  came  into  contact 
with  the  men  from  Plymouth,  they  began  to 
organize  their  churches  on  the  Plymouth 
model  and  before  long  the  New  England  Pur- 
itan churches  were  practically  all  indepen- 
dent of  the  Church  of  England ;  that  is,  they 
had  become  Congregational  in  government. 
The  influence  which  brought  about  this 
change,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  it  to  any  one 
person  seems  to  have  been  due  to  Samuel 
Fuller,  deacon  and  doctor  of  the  Plymouth 
[23] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

clmrcli.  It  was  he  wlio  probably  convinced 
tlie  Salem  Puritans  of  the  superiority  of  the 
Congregational  order  that  was  already  work- 
ing successfully  in  Pljnnouth.  The  causes 
of  the  change  are  very  obscure ;  but  the  fact 
that  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  became 
Congregationalists  is  supremely  important 
for  our  story.  It  means  that  as  the  congre- 
gations of  the  New  England  colonies  were 
organized  they  took  the  form  exemplified  at 
Plymouth  and  made  this  the  prevailing  type. 
From  1631  to  1664  the  right  to  vote  was 
limited  in  Massachusetts  to  church  members. 
The  two  settlements  within  the  present 
state  of  Connecticut  were  known  as  the  Con- 
necticut and  New  Haven  Colonies.  The 
former  gathered  about  Hartford  and  was 
composed  of  emigrants  from  Massachusetts. 
These  people  had  grown  restless  because  of 
that  hunger  for  land  which  has  constantly 
brought  about  the  extension  of  the  frontiers 
of  the  United  States  by  pioneers.  From 
1634  to  1636  individuals  and  groups  moved 
across  the  country  to  the  Connecticut  valley 
and  soon  Hartford,  Wethersfield  and  Wind- 
sor were  settled.  The  outstanding  name  in 
this  colony  is  that  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker 
of  Hartford.  In  spirit  the  Connecticut 
churches  were  more  democratic  than  those  in 
Massachusetts.  This  resulted  in  the  intro- 
duction of  democratic  principles  into  the 
charter  of  the  colony,  as  we  shall  see  later. 
[24] 


Three   Centuries   of   Service 

New  Haven  was  settled  by  men  chiefly 
from  London  under  the  leadership  of  Eev. 
John  Davenport.  The  emphasis  in  this 
colony  was  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible  and 
the  reign  of  the  will  of  God  in  all  the  life  of 
mankind.  So  the  New  Haven  settlers  or- 
ganized and  governed  both  state  and  church 
according  to  their  understanding  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Bible.  This  form  of  organ- 
ization and  government  was  a  very  close  ap- 
proach to  what  is  known  as  *' theocracy,"  or 
the  reign  of  God  in  the  life  of  the  people. 

Around  these  points — Plymouth,  Salem 
and  Boston,  Hartford  and  New  Haven— be- 
gan the  growth  of  the  Congregational 
churches  in  the  early  days  of  colonial  New 
England.  Each  colony  was  characterized  by 
its  peculiar  temper  and  its  own  expression 
of  church  life  and  government.  The  strong- 
est men  in  the  churches,  both  ministers  and 
laymen,  were  also  the  leaders  in  the  state. 
In  New  Haven  the  right  to  vote  was  re- 
stricted to  church  members  and  the  Congre- 
gational church  was  practically  a  state 
church. 

The  problem  of  bringing  these  strong,  in- 
dependent churches  and  colonies  into  prac- 
tical fellowship  was  from  the  beginning  dif- 
ficult. Their  members  had  sacrificed  so 
much  for  their  ideals  that  their  individual 
character  had  become  exceedingly  pro- 
nounced. They  felt  obliged  to  defend  not 
[25] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

only  their  forms  of  cliurcli  government  but 
also  their  political  institutions,  which  they 
had  set  up  under  the  sanction  of  royal  char- 
ters. They  had  active  foes  with  whom  to 
contend  in  England  as  well  as  in  America. 
Every  form  of  excess  and  disorder  was  a 
source  of  danger  to  them.  Consequently 
they  assumed  in  their  treatment  of  those  who 
differed  with  them  on  religious  and  political 
principles  a  severity  which  is  contrary  to 
our  modern  conception  of  a  Christian  spirit. 
The  persecution  of  Baptists  and  Quakers  and 
the  execution  of  persons  condemned  as 
witches  in  Salem  ^  is  a  blot  on  what  would 
otherwise  be  a  clean  page  of  generous  and 
heroic  struggle  for  freedom.  This  severity, 
however,  is  explained  to  a  large  extent  by  the 
fact  that  the  opposition — ^much  of  which,  was 
excessive  and  disorderly  in  character — seri- 
ously menaced  the  royal  state  charters,  from 
which  the  colonies  derived  their  legal  right 
to  corporate  existence. 

The  sense  of  common  peril  and  the  force  of 
a  common  cause  necessarily  drew  the  inde- 
pendent congregations  together,  and  in  1637 
the  first  general  Council  of  the  churches,  or 
Synod  as  it  was  called,  met  in  Boston.  The 
expenses  of  the  meeting  were  paid  from  the 
treasury  of  the  Colony,  an  indication  of  the 
close    relation    between    churcli    and    state. 

1  Persons  condemned  as  witches  never  were  "burned"  in 
Salem,  as  is  so  often  stated. 

[26] 


Three    Centuries   of   Service 

This  Council  is  sigiiificant  because  it  marks 
the  first  step  in  fellowship  taken  by  the 
scattered  churches.  From  that  time  to 
the  present  there  has  been  constant  move- 
ment in  the  ideals  and  the  institutions  of 
church  government.  Sometimes  the  princi- 
ple of  local  independence  has  been  more 
strongly  emphasized ;  at  other  times  the  prin- 
ciple of  fellowship  has  been  exalted. 
Neither  has  ever  been  lost  but  the  perfect 
adjustment  has  not  yet  come. 

A  ''SjTiod"  held  at  Cambridge  in  1647 
adopted  a  Confession  of  Faith,  thus  accent- 
ing the  doctrinal  fellowship  of  the  churches. 
Another  significant  Council  in  the  interests 
of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  churches  convened 
in  1679-80.  Still  more  important  was  the 
SjTiod  held  at  Saybrook,  Connecticut,  in  1708, 
which  sanctioned  a  far  closer  association 
of  the  churches  in  ''consociations."  These 
were  to  take  the  form  of  standing  councils, 
empowered  to  settle  cases  of  discipline  which 
could  not  be  satisfactorily  handled  by  the 
local  churches.  The  decision  of  the  conso- 
ciation was  to  be  binding  on  the  local  church, 
except  under  certain  rare  conditions.  This 
was  carrying  the  principle  of  fellowship  to 
an  extreme  limit,  and  marked  a  very  close 
approach  to  the  Presbyterian  form  of  church 
government.  Thus  Connecticut  came  to  rep- 
resent the  principle  of  fellowship  much  more 
strongly  than  did  Massachusetts,  and  its 
[27] 


The   Pilg ri m    Faith 

sympathy  with  the  Presbyterian  church  be- 
came yery  pronomiced.  The  bearing  of  this 
fact  on  the  relation  between  Congregational 
and  Presbyterian  churches  in  home-mission- 
ary work  will  appear  later. 

The  Connecticut  action  did  not  go  without 
protest.  In  1710  Eey.  John  Wise  published 
a  book  entitled  "Vindication  of  the  Goyern- 
ment  of  New  England  Churches"  which  is 
probably  still  the  best  presentation  of  the 
fundamental  democracy  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith, 
and  has  had  a  yery  marked  influence  on 
American  political  ideals.  It  represents  the 
opposite  position  to  that  taken  by  the  Say- 
brook  SjTiod.  Between  these  two  points, 
back  and  forth,  the  moyement  of  the  last  cen- 
turies has  wayered. 

The  first  generation  of  Xew  England  col- 
onists were  not  able  to  transmit  their  moral 
and  religious  ideals  unimpaired  to  their  chil- 
dren. Trumbull,  the  historian  of  Connecti- 
cut, cites  the  witness  of  an  eminent  man  to 
the  effect  that  during  the  seyen  years  in 
which  he  liyed  in  Xew  England  he  had  neyer 
heard  a  profane  oath  or  seen  a  person  drunk. 
This  condition  changed  rapidly  howeyer ;  for 
Trumbull  tells  us  that  by  the  fourth  genera- 
tion,— about  1730, — "throughout  the  colonies 
looseness  of  morals,  drinking  and  the  neglect 
of  family  and  social  religion  were  the  rule, 
rather  than  the  exception." 
[28] 


Three   Centuries   of   Service 

Then  began  the  Great  Awakening,  the 
story  of  which  ^vill  be  told  in  Chapter  III. 
It  changed  the  religious  condition  of  New 
England  and  sounded  the  key-note  of  the 
second  period  of  our  history. 

Out  of  the  Great  Awakening  grew  a  dis- 
cussion of  Christian  doctrine  which  is  known 
as  the  Xew  England  Theology.  This  is  the 
unique  contribution  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
to  Christian  thought  and  it  is  so  important 
that  an  entire  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  it 
later. 

Except  as  it  concerns  the  Great  Awaken- 
ing and  the  beginnings  of  the  Xew  England 
Theology,  the  story  of  the  second  period 
(1740-1850)  gathers  around  the  political 
struggle  of  the  Revolution  and  the  rapid  ex- 
pansion of  the  country,  especially  by  emigra- 
tion from  New  England,  after  stable  condi- 
tions had  been  reached  following  the  adop- 
tion of  the  federal  constitution. 

The  long  struggle  for  national  indepen- 
dence is  the  logical  result  of  the  attempt  to 
realize  the  very  ideals  that  the  men  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  had  brought  to  New  England 
and  built  into  their  churches  and  forms  of 
political  government.  As  President  John 
Adams  said: 

''The  principles  and  feelings  which  con- 
tributed to  produce  the  Eevolution  ought  to 
be  traced  back  for  two  hundred  years,  and 
[29] 


The  Pilgrim   F aith 

sought  in  tlie  history  of  the  country  from 
the  first  plantations  in  America."  ^ 

The  establishment  of  churches  according 
to  the  order  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  did  not  go 
on  without  violent  opposition  from  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Church  of  England.  Arch- 
bishop Laud  tried  to  force  the  authority  of 
the  English  Church  upon  the  colonists;  and 
his  successors  sent  their  missionaries  to  New 
England  to  establish  Episcopal  churches  in 
towns  where  there  were  already  flourishing 
congregations  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  This 
movement  was  opposed  by  the  Congrega- 
tional leaders  in  the  Colonies  and  this  dis- 
cussion in  the  realm  of  the  Church  did  much 
to  turn  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  re- 
lated question  of  the  political  authority  of 
Parliament  over  the  Colonies.  This  point  is 
sometimes  overlooked  in  the  study  of  the 
forces  that  brought  about  the  Revolution;  but 
it  is  recognized  by  students  of  the  period  as 
very  significant.  Ministers  like  Eev.  Jona- 
than Mayhew  and  Rev.  Charles  Chauncey 
wrote  and  preached  against  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  and  their  published  works  became 
one  of  the  strongest  influences  acting  upon 
the  minds  of  the  people  in  favor  of  political 
independence.  The  writings  of  Rev.  John 
Wise  of  Ipswich  were  republished  at  the  ex- 
pense of  laymen  and  thus  the  great  state- 

1  Quoted  in  Dunnings,  "Congregationalists  in  America," 
1894,  p.  266. 

[30] 


Three    Centuries   of   Service 

ment  of  the  principles  of  Congregationalism 
was  given  new  force  in  the  political  realm. 

When  it  came  to  the  actual  conflict  of  the 
Revolution  the  part  that  the  Congregational 
churches  played  in  it  was  most  important. 
The  churches  became  places  for  patriotic  as 
well  as  for  religious  meetings.  It  was  in  the 
Old  South  meetinghouse  in  Boston  that  the 
crowds  gathered  for  public  protest  against 
the  taxes  levied  upon  the  people  who  were 
not  represented  in  the  parliament  that  as- 
sessed them.  From  this  church  the  men 
went  out  for  the  Boston  Tea  Party  and 
pitched  the  chests  into  the  Bay.  The  British 
soldiers  showed  that  they  regarded  the 
churches  as  the  centers  of  patriotic  unrest, 
for  their  vented  their  spite  against  them 
whenever  they  could.  The  Old  South  in  Bos- 
ton they  used  for  a  stable  and  riding-school. 
The  ministers  bore  their  part  nobly  in  the 
army  and  at  home.  The  action  of  Rev. 
Joshua  Paine  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Sturbridge,  Mass.,  is  typical.  He  gave  a 
fifth  of  his  salary  for  the  year  to  help  buy 
the  powder  which  the  town  was  asked  to  fur- 
nish for  the  War.  The  proportion  of  Con- 
tinental soldiers  who  came  from  Congrega- 
tional churches  may  be  estimated  from  the 
fact  that  in  1770  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
four  of  the  three  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
ecclesiastical  organizations  in  Massachusetts 
were  Congregational.  From  the  laymen  of 
[31] 


The  Pilgrim   Faith 

these  clmrclies  came  the  soldiers  who  fought 
the  Revolutionary  war  to  a  successful  finish. 

From  the  beginning  the  Congregational- 
ists  have  been  pioneers,  and  the  desire  for 
larger  opportunity  for  themselves  and  their 
children  has  driven  the  families  of  New  Eng- 
land farther  and  farther  West.  They  have 
meanwhile  been  loyal  to  their  ideals  and  in- 
stitutions. As  a  careful  student  of  this  move- 
ment from  New  England  to  the  West  says : 

**Yet  even  in  their  ambition,  the  frontiers- 
men from  New  England  have  not  been  un- 
mindful of  the  moral  and  religious  side  of 
life,  for  that  has  always  been  most  firmly  in- 
grained and  most  thoroughly  characteristic 
of  the  Puritan  and  his  descendants.  There- 
fore, the  emigrants  carried  with  them  their 
school,  their  church,  and  their  town-meeting ; 
certain  that  their  own  institutions  were  best, 
backed  by  their  conviction  of  their  own  keen- 
ness of  judgment,  aided  by  the  conservatism 
which  clings  to  what  it  knows  by  experience 
is  good,  they  insisted  upon  the  adoption  of 
their  traditional  institutions  in  the  newer 
states  of  the  West."  ^ 

The  history  of  the  Congregational 
churches  outside  New  England  from  1800  to 
1852  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  operation 
of  the  "Plan  of  Union"  between  the  Pres- 
byterians and  the  Congregationalists.    This 

iLois  K.  Mathews,  "The  Expansion  of  New  England," 
1909,  p.  261. 

[32] 


Three   Centuries  of  Service 

is  one  of  the  most  important  episodes  in  tlie 
entire  history  of  the  Congregational  churches 
in  the  United  States. 

In  matters  of  creed  the  New  England  Con- 
gregationalists  were  in  close  accord  with  the 
Presbyterians.  Both  accepted  for  substance 
of  doctrine  the  "Westminster  Confession. 
The  New  England  Theology  was  a  modifica- 
tion of  this  rather  than  a  break  with  it.  The 
difference  between  the  two  denominations  lay 
in  the  realm  of  church  government;  but  in 
Connecticut  the  Congregational  churches 
were  organized  into  ''Consociations"  which 
had  many  of  the  practical  features  of  Pres- 
byteries. Against  this  centralizing  tendency 
there  were  strong  protests,  especially  by  Eev. 
John  Wise  in  1710  and  1717  and  by  Rev. 
Nathanael  Emmons  in  1802. 

The  Congregationalists  of  Connecticut  and 
western  Massachusetts  were  in  the  closest 
sympathy  with  the  Presbyterians  of  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  and  Congrega- 
tional pastors  very  often  called  their 
churches  Presbyterian.  After  1791  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
and  the  General  Association  of  Congrega- 
tional Churches  in  Connecticut  sent  delegates 
to  each  other's  sessions.  After  1794  these 
delegates  were  given  voting  powers  in  the 
meetings  of  the  sister  churches.  Later  the 
same  relation  existed  between  the  General 
Assembly  and  the  Congregational  Associa- 
[33] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

tions  of  Vermont,  New  Hampshire  and  Mas- 
sachusetts, continuing  until  1837. 

Under  these  conditions  the  two  denomina- 
tions were  called  upon  to  face  a  common 
home-missionary  task  under  new  conditions. 
Population  was  moving  rapidly  from  Con- 
necticut into  New  York  and  Ohio.  Here  the 
pioneers  met  a  stream  of  settlers,  from  Penn- 
sylvania especially,  who  were  Presbyterian. 
The  earlier  movement  into  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire  had  been  almost  entirely  made  up 
of  Congregationalists ;  consequently  the  home 
churches  had  sent  their  ministers  to  organize 
Congregational  churches  among  Congrega- 
tionalists. In  the  farther  West  the  con- 
ditions were  changed.  Both  Congregation- 
alists and  Presbyterians  must  be  served 
by  the  home  missionaries.  As  a  result  there 
came  up  in  the  Connecticut  General  Associa- 
tion of  1800  the  question  of  adjusting  the  two 
forms  of  church  government  to  mutual  ad- 
vantage on  missionary  ground.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  meet  representatives  of  the 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly  to  consider 
the  matter.  Finally  there  was  worked  out 
an  agreement  between  the  two  bodies  which 
furnished  the  basis  for  home-missionary  work 
for  a  half  century.  It  is  known  as  the  Plan  of 
Union.  It  was  designed  to  govern  only  the 
missionary  activities  of  the  two  denomina- 
tions in  their  common  work  on  the  frontier. 
It  was  entered  into  in  good  faith  and  was  fair 
[34] 


Three   Centuries   of   Service 

in  its  provisions.  It  was  kept  honorably  by 
both  parties.  Its  final  issue  to  the  material 
advantage  of  the  Presbyterians  was  due  to 
the  conditions  obtaining  in  the  two  denomi- 
nations rather  than  to  any  essential  unfair- 
ness in  the  Plan  itself  or  its  administration. 

The  Plan  of  Union  pledged  the  mission- 
aries to  promote  sympathy  and  practical  fel- 
lowship between  Congregationalists  and 
Presbyterians.  If  a  congregation  was  found 
to  be  composed  of  members  of  both  denom- 
inations, this  fact  was  not  to  be  regarded  as 
an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  organizing  a  church 
and  settling  a  minister.  The  form  of  gov- 
ernment of  such  a  church  was  to  be  either 
Congregational  or  Presbyterian,  as  might  be 
determined.  The  Plan  provided  for  the 
rights  of  ministers  and  laymen  who  might 
not  be  in  accord  with  the  form  of  government 
adopted  by  the  individual  church  of  which 
they  had  become  a  part.  For  instance,  if  a 
Congregational  church  were  to  settle  a  Pres- 
byterian minister,  it  might  still  conduct  all 
its  business  in  the  Congregational  way;  but 
if  difficulty  were  to  arise  between  the  church 
or  any  member  of  it  and  the  minister,  the 
case  was  to  be  referred  by  mutual  agreement 
to  the  Presbytery  or  to  a  council  consisting 
of  an  equal  number  of  Presbyterians  and 
Congregationalists  agreed  upon  by  both  par- 
ties. A  similar  rule  safeguarded  the  privi- 
leges of  appeal  to  his  Association  on  the  part 
[35] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

of    a    Congregational    minister    serving    a 
churcli  governed  by  the  Presbyterian  form. 
The  problem  of  discipline  in  the  case  of  in- 
dividuals was  handled  by  a  standing  com- 
mittee of  the  church,  the  judgment  of  which 
could  be  appealed.    If  the  person  under  dis- 
cipline was  a  Presbyterian,  he  had  the  right 
of  appeal  to  the  Presbytery,  and  its  verdict 
was  final  unless  the  church  should  sanction 
a  further  appeal  to  the  Synod  or  General  As- 
sembly.   If  the  person  under  discipline  was 
a  Congregationalist,  he  had  the  right  of  ap- 
peal to   the  male  members   of  the   church, 
whose  decision  might  be  referred  to  a  mutual 
council,  if  the  person  so  wished. 

This  was  certainly  as  fair  an  arrangement 
as  could  be  worked  out  on  paper.  It  prob- 
ably would  never  have  been  accepted  by 
either  party  if  either  had  foreseen  the  future 
growth  of  the  frontier  territory  where  they 
were  working  or  the  future  strength  of  the 
churches  that  were  organized  under  its  pro- 
visions. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  Plan  resulted  gen- 
erally in  the  final  production  of  Presbyterian 
rather  than  Congregational  churches  even 
where  the  original  material  had  been  Con- 
gregational. According  to  a  careful  esti- 
mate, by  the  operation  of  the  Plan  of  Union 
two  thousand  churches  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  Congregational  were  per- 
manently brought  into  the  Presbyterian  con- 
[36] 


Three   Centuries   of   Service 

nection.  Thus  from  the  Hudson  river  to 
Illinois,  with  the  exception  of  sections  in 
Ohio,  the  Congregationalists  worked  for 
fifty  years,  sending  men  and  money  without 
measure  into  the  field,  and  the  result,  so  far 
as  church  organization  was  concerned,  ac- 
crued almost  entirely  to  the  Presbyterians. 

This  was  not  due,  however,  to  any  unfair 
practice  on  the  part  of  the  Presbyterians. 
They  were  simply  alert  and  intensely  loyal 
to  their  form  of  church  government.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Congregationalists,  espe- 
cially in  Connecticut,  from  which  the  greater 
number  of  emigrants  and  missionaries  came, 
were  generally  convinced  that  the  Congrega- 
tional method  of  church  government  was  not 
adapted  to  a  new  country  and  that  the  Pres- 
byterian system  was  the  better  for  the 
frontier.  The  Congregational  ministers  who 
did  not  regard  the  difference  between 
the  two  systems  as  essential,  naturally  joined 
the  Presbyteries,  which  were  stronger  than 
their  own  Associations. 

In  1852  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  the  Plan  of 
Union  was  set  aside  by  the  Congrega- 
tionalists. It  had  been  a  great  experiment 
and  a  noble  failure.  It  is  often  referred  to 
as  the  "Disastrous  Plan."  Materially,  it 
was  such  for  the  Congregationalists;  but 
the  adjective  is  misleading.  The  plan  was 
rather  a  noble  attempt  to  realize  an  ideal 
which  was  impossible  of  attainment. 
[37] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

The  third  period  in  the  history  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  in  the  United  States  is  character- 
ized by  a  new  self-consciousness  and  a  sense 
of  mission,  which  arose  very  largely  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  These  were  especially 
marked  in  Illinois  and  Iowa.  Congrega- 
tional missionaries  sent  out  and  supported 
by  Congregational  money  worked  through- 
out the  country  and  the  results  of  their  la- 
bors accrued  to  the  Presbyterians.  The  first 
distinctly  Congregational  church  in  Illinois 
was  not  organized  until  1831.  Twenty  years 
later  the  first  Congregational  church  in  Chi- 
cago was  founded.  Men  like  Eev.  Julian  M. 
Sturtevant  in  Illinois,  Rev.  Asa  Turner  in 
Iowa,  and  Rev.  Truman  M.  Post  in  Missouri 
stood  for  the  Congregational  churches  in  the 
new  territory. 

In  1852  the  Albany  Council  registered  the 
beginning  of  a  new  life.  It  was  the  first 
Council  representing  all  the  Congregational 
churches  that  had  met  in  the  United  States 
since  1648. 

Many  of  the  most  significant  movements 
that  followed  the  Albany  Council  in  this  last 
period  will  be  touched  upon  in  the  later 
chapters.  It  is  the  period  of  the  most  ex- 
tensive growth,  of  the  highest  efficiency  in 
service,  and  of  the  most  unified  endeavor  that 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  has  attained  in  its  almost 
three  centuries  of  continuous  life  in  America. 

[38] 


Ill 

THE  FAITH  IN  EVANGELISTIC 
ACTION 


Ill 

THE   FAITH   IN   EVANGELISTIC   AC- 
TION 

WHEN  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  decided  to 
leave  Holland  for  America  they  gave 
the  reasons  that  influenced  them  to  make  the 
change.  The  concluding  one,  and  without 
doubt  in  the  minds  of  many  the  most  impor- 
tant, was  put,  in  the  quaint  language  of  Wil- 
liam Bradford,  as  follows: 

"Lastly  (which  was  not  least),  a  great 
hope  and  inward  zeal  they  had  of  laying  some 
good  foundation,  or  at  least  to  make  some 
way  thereunto,  for  the  propagating  and  ad- 
vancing the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
in  those  remote  parts  of  the  world;  yea, 
though  they  should  be  even  as  stepping- 
stones  unto  others  for  the  performing  of  so 
great  a  work." 

This  points  to  that  fundamental  conviction 
in  the  Pilgrim  Faith  which  affirms  that 
the  individual  Christian  and  the  Church  are 
united  under  a  common  obligation  to  extend 
the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  every- 
where and  among  all  people. 

So  when  the  first  report  reached  Rev.  John 
Robinson  in  Leyden  that  certain  Indians  had 
[41] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

been  killed  in  a  conflict  with  the  Plymouth 
men,  he  wrote  to  them :  "  Oh !  how  happy  a 
thing  had  it  been,  if  you  had  converted  some, 
before  you  had  killed  any. ' '  ^ 

The  story  of  all  the  New  England  churches 
confirms  the  statement  that  the  extension 
of  the  gospel  by  preaching  lay  at  the  center 
of  their  activity.  They  were  not  seeking 
primarily  to  enlarge  their  membership,  in- 
crease their  influence  in  political  and  social 
affairs,  or  to  gain  for  themselves  any  pe- 
culiar authority  in  the  growing  life  of  the 
oolonies.  Their  very  consistent  purpose 
was  to  promote  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
and  make  it  a  ruling  principle  in  the  lives  of 
men. 

This  underlying  purpose  in  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  has  found  three  avenues  of  expres- 
sion. 

First,  there  has  been  the  steady  effort  of 
individual  ministers  and  churches  to  keep 
the  evangelistic  note  constantly  clear  in  all 
their  work.  By  services  on  special  occasions 
and  by  the  ceaseless  culture  of  the  children, 
they  have  kept  the  great  motive  in  action. 
It  is  not  possible  to  make  a  report  of  this 
kind  of  work;  but  this  motive  has  always 
been  held  steadily  by  the  churches  that  hold 
the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

Then  there  has  been  the  constant  activity 
of  the  evangelistic  purpose  in  the  missionary 

1  Bradford,  "Plymouth  Plantation,"  1898,  p.  197. 

[42] 


CHARLES    G.    FINNEY  GRAHAM    TAYLOR 

DWIGHT    L.    MOODY 
JOSIAH    STRONG  FRANCIS    E.    CLARK 


Faith   in  Evangelistic   Action 

work  of  the  churches.  At  home  and  abroad 
they  have  followed  the  frontier  and  explored 
unknown  lands  in  order  that  they  might 
preach  the  gospel.  This  activity  has  been 
so  remarkably  prominent  and  successful  that 
it  will  be  surveyed  in  chapters  vi-viii. 

Finally,  the  evangelistic  passion  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  has  found  expression  in  great 
movements  for  the  extension  of  the  gospel 
and  the  conversion  of  men  and  women  to 
Christ.  As  leaders  of  these  movements 
there  have  arisen  evangelists  who  have  been 
men  of  unique  power. 

About  1740  there  began  in  New  England 
a  religious  revival  which  has  come  to  be 
known  as  the  Great  Awakening.  This  was 
important  not  only  on  account  of  the  pro- 
found influence  that  it  exerted  upon  the  peo- 
ple at  the  time,  but  also  because  of  its  re- 
sults in  the  practical  life  and  thought  of  the 
years  that  followed. 

The  time  covered  by  the  Great  Awakening 
was  practically  the  ten  years  from  1734  to 
1744:  it  was  at  its  height  from  1740-1742. 
For  more  than  fifty  years  previous  to  the 
beginning  of  this  movement,  the  religious  life 
of  New  England  had  been  in  the  grip  of  a 
cold  and  formal  spirit.  The  earlier  evan- 
gelistic passion  of  the  Church  had  perished 
to  a  very  large  extent  and  there  was  an  ex- 
cessive emphasis  upon  the  external  aspects 
of  the  religious  life.  In  1734  Eev.  Jonathan 
[43] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

Edwards  began  a  series  of  sermons  in  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  on  Justilfication  by  Faitb, 
the  old  doctrine  in  which  the  Reformation 
had  its  origin.  The  effect  was  immediate 
and  profound.  Personal  religion  became  the 
absorbing  subject  of  conversation.  New  in- 
terest in  the  services  and  work  of  the  Church 
was  awakened;  the  people  turned  their  at- 
tention especially  to  the  matter  of  daily 
conduct,  and  their  moral  life  was  radically 
changed.  The  movement  spread  from 
Northampton  through  the  Connecticut  Val- 
ley and  thence  throughout  New  England.  It 
passed  onward  also  into  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania. 

The  next  step  was  the  coming  of  Rev. 
George  Whitefield  from  England  to  America 
to  bear  a  part  in  the  Awakening.  Whitefield 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  preachers  in 
the  history  of  Christian  evangelism.  At  this 
time  he  was  a  young  man  about  twenty-five 
years  old  and  in  the  prime  of  his  powers. 
The  reception  given  to  his  message  in  Amer- 
ica was  enthusiastic.  He  preached  in  the 
South  as  well  as  in  the  northern  states,  but 
our  interest  lies  in  his  tour  of  New  England 
in  1740.  People  came  by  thousands  to  hear 
him.  The  highest  officers  of  the  state  re- 
ceived him.  The  word  "adoration"  is  the 
only  term  that  adequately  describes  the  popu- 
lar response  to  Whitefield 's  personality  and 
message. 

[44] 


Faith    in    Evangelistic   Action 

There  is  preserved  in  Connecticut  a  manu- 
script entitled  "The  Spiritual  Travels  of 
Nathan  Cole  of  Kensington,"  in  which  the 
author  tells  how  he  and  his  wife  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice  rode  from  Kensington  to  Mid- 
dletown  to  hear  Whitefield  preach.  He  had 
heard  that  Whitefield,  who,  it  was  said,  was 
**like  one  of  the  old  Apostles,"  had  preached 
in  New  Jersey  and  New  York  and  later  had 
come  to  Boston  and  Northampton. 

"Then  on  a  sudden  in  the  morning  about 
eight  or  nine  of  the  clock  there  came  a  mes- 
senger and  said,  'Mr.  Whitefield  ...  is  to 
preach  at  Middletown  this  morning  at  ten  of 
the  clock.'  I  was  in  my  field  at  work.  I 
dropt  my  tool  that  I  had  in  mine  hand,  and 
ran  home  to  my  wife,  telling  her  to  make 
ready  quickly  to  go  and  hear  Mr.  Whitefield 
preach  at  Middletown,  then  ran  to  my  pas- 
ture for  my  horse,  with  all  my  might,  fearing 
that  I  should  be  too  late.  Having  my  horse, 
I  with  my  wife  soon  mounted  the  horse  and 
went  forward  as  fast  as  I  thought  the  horse 
could  bear,  and  when  my  horse  got  much  out 
of  breath,  I  would  get  down  and  put  my  wife 
in  the  saddle  and  bid  her  ride  as  fast  as  she 
could  and  not  stop  or  slack  for  me  except  I 
bade  her.  And  so  I  would  run  until  I  was 
much  out  of  breath  and  then  mount  my  horse 
again.  .  .  .  We  improved  every  moment  to 
get  along  as  if  we  were  fleeing  for  our  lives, 
all  the  while  fearing  we  should  be  too  late  to 
[45] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

hear  the  sermon,  for  we  had  twelve  miles  to 
ride  double  in  little  more  than  an  hour. ' ' 

As  they  approached  Middletown  they  came 
in  sight  of  the  Hartford  road.    Mr.  Cole  says : 

"I  saw  before  me  a  cloud  or  fog  rising. 
I  first  thought  it  came  from  the  great  river/ 
but  as  I  came  nearer,  I  heard  a  noise  some- 
thing like  a  low  rumbling  thunder  and  pres- 
ently found  it  was  the  noise  of  the  horses' 
feet  coming  down  the  road  and  this  cloud  was 
a  cloud  of  dust  made  by  the  horses '  feet.  It 
arose  some  rods  into  the  air  over  the  tops  of 
hills  and  trees,  and  when  I  came  within  about 
twenty  rods  of  the  road  I  could  see  men  and 
horses  slipping  along  in  the  cloud  like 
shadows,  and  as  I  drew  nearer  it  seemed  like 
a  steady  stream  of  horses  and  their  riders, 
scarcely  a  horse  more  than  his  length  be- 
hind another,  all  of  a  lather  and  foam  with 
sweat.  .  .  .  Every  horse  seemed  to  go  with 
all  his  might  to  carry  his  rider  to  hear  news 
from  heaven  for  the  saving  of  souls." 

Later  in  their  journey  the  eager  travelers 
commanded  a  view  of  the  ''great  river." 
Mr.  Cole  describes  as  follows  the  unusual 
scene  that  there  met  their  eyes: 

"I  saw  ferry  boats  running  swift  back- 
wards and  forwards  bringing  over  loads  of 
people.  Everything,  men,  horses,  and  boats 
seemed  to  be  struggling  for  life.  The  land 
and  banks  over  the  river  looked  dark  with 

1  The  Connecticut. 

[46] 


Faith   in    Evangelistic   Action 

people  and  horses.  All  along  the  twelve 
miles  I  saw  no  man  at  work  in  his  field,  but 
all  seemed  to  be  gone." 

The  ministers  were  coming  to  the  meeting- 
house as  Mr.  Cole  and  his  wife  arrived. 
Later  he  wrote  this  description  of  the  great 
preacher  and  the  effect  of  his  sermon: 

"When  I  saw  Mr.  Whitefield  come  upon 
the  [platform]  he  looked  almost  angelical, 
a  young,  slim,  slender  youth,  before  some 
thousands  of  people,  with  a  bold,  undaunted 
countenance.  And  my  hearing  how  God  was 
with  him  everywhere  as  he  came  along,  it 
solemnized  my  mind  and  put  me  into  a  trem- 
bling fear  before  he  began  to  preach ;  for  he 
looked  as  if  he  was  clothed  with  authority 
from  the  great  God,  and  a  sweet  solemnity 
sat  upon  his  brow,  and  my  hearing  him 
preach  gave  me  a  heart  wound." 

These  extracts  from  Mr.  Cole's  account 
give  a  vivid  picture  of  scenes  that  were  com- 
mon during  the  progress  of  the  Great  Awak- 
ening. The  movement  was  attended  by  many 
scenes  that  offended  the  taste  of  some  of  the 
ministers.  At  the  meetings  there  were  some- 
times outcries  from  the  audiences  and  in 
some  cases  certain  of  the  persons  in  attend- 
ance lost  consciousness;  occasionally  the 
preachers  and  converts  became  unduly 
severe  in  their  criticism  of  those  who  did  not 
agree  with  them.  Jonathan  Edwards  found 
it  necessary  to  write  a  defense  of  the  move- 
[47] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

ment,  and  in  it  he  frankly  admitted  tlie  valid- 
ity of  many  points  made  by  its  opponents. 
He  showed,  however,  that  the  prevailing  con- 
dition of  religious  indifference  and  open  im- 
morality in  New  England  had  been  entirely 
changed  for  the  better.  Throughout  all  the 
Colonies  he  asserted  a  new  temper  had  ap- 
peared, and  men  and  women  were  deeply 
concerned  with  religion.  They  thought  and 
talked  about  it  universally.  They  had  taken 
a  new  attitude  toward  the  Church.  Espe- 
cially was  there  a  change  in  the  frivolous  con- 
duct of  the  young  people,  and  those  who  had 
been  fond  of  society  gave  their  energies  to 
nobler  aims.  Most  notable  of  all,  the  men 
had  given  up  drinking,  profanity,  and  foul 
language;  they  were  remaining  at  home 
rather  than  lounging  in  the  taverns.  There 
was  a  higher  standard  of  honesty  in  busi- 
ness, less  gossip  and  criticism  among  neigh- 
bors, and  thousands  had  become  happy  in 
their  assurance  of  a  new  life  in  Christ. 
There  is  no  question  that  this  was  on  the 
whole  a  fair  report  of  the  positive  result  of 
the  Great  Awakening. 

Edwards  however  was  not  its  sole  preacher 
in  America.  The  Awakening  called  into  ac- 
tion the  strongest  ministers  in  New  England, 
and  to  it  they  gave  their  strength  in  full  de- 
votion. The  result  was  a  very  large  acces- 
sion to  the  membership  and  power  of  the 
churches.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  ac- 
[48] 


Faith    in   Evangelistic   Action 

curately  the  exact  number  of  new  adherents 
gained  at  this  time,  but  the  Great  Awaken- 
ing was  the  most  extensive  evangelistic 
movement  that  New  England  ever  has  known. 

The  years  of  the  Eevolution  and  the  time 
of  political  uncertainty  that  followed  it 
marked  the  lowest  point  ever  reached  in  the 
religious  condition  of  the  Congregational 
churches.  This  was  followed  by  a  very  ex- 
tensive period  of  religious  revival  which  is 
sometimes  known  as  the  "Second"  Awaken- 
ing. The  results  of  this  were  perhaps  more 
permanent  than  were  those  of  the  Great 
Awakening,  and  it  did  not  suffer  from  the 
excesses  that  marked  the  earlier  movement. 
All  New  England  and  the  Middle  States  were 
touched  by  the  common  spiritual  impulse, 
and  from  1791  to  1858  the  activity  continued. 

Evangelism  never  has  ceased  to  be  an  es- 
sential part  of  the  activity  of  the  Congrega- 
tional churches.  Only  a  few  expressions  of 
it,  however,  can  be  touched  upon  and  only 
three  of  the  leaders  mentioned  in  the  para- 
graphs that  follow. 

One  of  the  ministers  who  was  fired  with  the 
evangelistic  spirit  was  Edward  Dorr  Griffin, 
who,  after  a  famous  pastorate,  became 
President  of  "Williams  College.  Dr.  Griffin 
wrote  an  account  of  the  spiritual  awakenings 
in  which  he  bore  a  part,  and  reported  that, 
in  1799,  he  could  stand  at  his  door  in  New 
Hartford,  Conn.,  "and  number  fifty  or  sixty 
[49] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

contiguous  congregations  laid  down  in  one 
field  of  divine  wonders,  and  as  many  more 
in  different  parts  of  New  England." 

Still  more  important  than  the  work  to 
which  Dr.  Griffin  refers,  was  a  deep  spiritual 
movement  among  the  students  at  Yale  in 
1802.  The  religious  condition  of  this  insti- 
tution during  the  years  following  the  Revolu- 
tion had  become  deplorable.  The  opinions 
of  French  infidels  and  of  Thomas  Paine  were 
almost  universally  accepted  by  the  students 
and  were  accompanied  by  a  flagrant  moral 
life.  Gambling  prevailed  generally,  together 
with  a  cynical  disregard  of  all  the  Christian 
standards  of  conduct.  In  one  class  the  ma- 
jority of  the  students  had  taken  the  names 
of  French  and  English  infidels,  and  were  fa- 
miliarly known  in  this  way  to  their  college 
comrades.  In  1795  Timothy  Dwight  became 
president  of  Yale  College  as  well  as  professor 
of  divinity  and  pastor  of  the  college  church. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  his  spirit 
glowed  with  the  evangelistic  passion  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith.  There  was  a  prevalent  re- 
vival temper  abroad  in  the  churches  but  the 
college  had  not  as  yet  been  touched  by  it. 
Finally  in  the  spring  of  1802  the  movement 
began  in  the  college.  Meetings  for  prayer 
were  held  by  the  students  and  personal  work 
was  done  eagerly  by  the  men  to  enlist  their 
fellows  in  the  Christian  life.  The  results  of 
President  Dwight 's  arguments  and  personal 
[50] 


Faith    in    Evangelistic   Action 

influence  against  infidelity  began  to  bear  fruit 
and  at  last,  during  the  final  ten  days  of  the 
college  term,  fifty  students  out  of  a  total  of 
about  two  hundred  and  thirty  gave  open  ex- 
pression of  their  new  religious  purpose. 
The  summer  vacation  scattered  the  men  to 
their  homes ;  but  they  carried  abroad  the  evi- 
dence of  what  had  taken  place  in  the  College, 
and  so  the  general  revival  movement  was 
strengthened.  In  the  end  the  entire  life  of 
Yale  College  was  transformed. 

Another  man  w^ho  guided  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
as  it  met  the  evangelistic  test  was  Eev. 
Asahel  Nettleton.  He  was  born  in  Con- 
necticut and  became  interested  in  the  Chris- 
tian life  in  the  evangelistic  awakenings  of 
1800.  After  graduating  at  Yale  he  desired 
to  become  a  foreign  missionary ;  but  the  way 
did  not  open.  Therefore  he  gave  his  life  to 
evangelistic  service  at  home  and  became  one 
of  the  most  successful  workers  in  the  field. 
He  had  rare  gifts  in  dealing  with  men  who 
were  perplexed  with  intellectual  doubts,  and 
knew  how  to  handle  the  opposition  of  scoffers. 
His  work  was  done  from  about  1811  to  1844 
and  was  confined  chiefly  to  New  England  and 
New  York,  where  he  preached  in  churches, 
school-houses,  taverns,  and  in  the  open  air 
with  great  success.  He  said  shortly  before 
he  died: 

''If  I  could  see  the  Pilgrims,  scattered 
abroad,  who  thought  they  experienced  re- 
[51] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

ligion  under  my  preaching,  I  should  like  to 
address  them.  I  would  tell  them  that  the 
great  truths  of  the  Gospel  appear  more  pre- 
cious than  ever ;  and  that  they  are  the  truths 
that  sustain  my  soul." 

Still  more  influential  as  an  evangelist  was 
Charles  G.  Finney,  also  born  in  Connecticut 
but  brought  up  in  western  New  York,  whose 
long  life  of  almost  eighty-three  years  did  not 
close  until  1875.  He  was  not  reared  in  a 
Christian  home  and  did  not  become  a  Chris- 
tian until  he  was  nearly  thirty  years  old. 
Immediately  upon  deciding  to  follow  Christ 
he  began  a  unique  career  of  personal  evan- 
gelism. He  went  out  of  his  office,  left  his 
legal  practice,  and  commenced  to  talk  with 
his  neighbors  and  friends  about  the  Christian 
life.  Then  he  began  to  travel  and  hold  evan- 
gelistic services.  He  had  received  no  train- 
ing as  a  preacher  or  theologian ;  but  because 
of  his  peculiar  gift  of  directness  his  words 
had  wonderful  power.  He  possessed  a  re- 
markable faculty  for  personal  dealing  with 
individuals  and  was  able  to  present  the  truth 
to  the  mind  and  the  moral  sense  of  men  as 
few  preachers  can.  "With  telling  force  h© 
appealed  to  the  conscience  and  called  upon 
men  to  assert  their  will  and  to  decide  to  fol- 
low Christ.  He  dwelt  more,  therefore,  upon 
the  power  of  the  individual  to  choose  than 
upon  the  mysteries  of  the  divine  grace  in  sal- 
vation, which  was  the  common  theme.  Faith 
[52] 


F aith   in   Evangelistic   Action 

was  to  him  a  matter  of  trust  by  a  person  in 
a  Person.  Mr.  Finney's  success  cannot  be 
explained  better  than  by  a  sentence  from  one 
of  his  own  reports  of  a  meeting  that  he  had 
conducted.  ''I  let  loose  my  whole  heart 
upon  them,"  he  said.  Without  reserve  and 
in  deepest  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his 
message  he  threw  himself  into  his  work  as  a 
preacher  and  personal  advocate  of  the  gospel. 
The  greatest  evangelist  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  was  Dwight  L.  Moody.  It  may  seem 
perhaps  too  short  a  time  since  his  death  in 
1899  to  affirm  his  preeminence  so  confi- 
dently; but  the  farther  we  move  from  Mr. 
Moody's  work,  the  greater  it  appears.  He 
was  a  man  of  unique  force  of  character  and 
his  preaching  resulted  in  the  conversion  of 
thousands  of  people.  He  never  was  or- 
dained and  remained  "Mr."  Moody  to  the 
end  of  his  life.  His  work  in  Christian  edu- 
cation was  almost  as  great  as  was  his  service 
in  the  field  of  evangelism,  for  he  organized 
Northfield  Seminary,  Mount  Hermon  School, 
and  Moody  Bible  Institute  in  Chicago.  Mr. 
Moody  was  born  in  1837,  became  a  Christian 
in  1855,  and  died  in  1899.  He  had  a  very 
remarkable  talent  for  establishing  relations 
of  warm  friendship  with  individuals.  At 
the  beginning  of  his  business  life  as  clerk  in 
a  shoe  store  in  Boston  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  routine  work  of  selling  goods  to  pa- 
trons who  came  into  the  store;  but  he  went 
[53] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

out  after  customers  and  soon  had  a  larger 
trade  than  any  other  clerk  in  the  store. 
When  he  was  told  that  he  might  teach  a  Sun- 
day-school class  in  Chicago  if  he  would  find 
the  members  for  it,  he  immediately  recruited 
a  motley  squad  from  the  streets  and  pre- 
sented them  for  instruction.  He  rented 
four  pews  in  church  and  filled  them  with 
young  men  whom  he  picked  up  even  from  the 
saloons,  into  which  he  went  with  a  manly  in- 
vitation which  won  the  respect  of  rough 
drinkers.  Thus  Mr.  Moody  was  the  very 
finest  representative  of  the  true  evangelistic 
motive  which  makes  one  person  seek  another 
in  order  to  lead  him  to  Christ.  He  became 
a  successful  and  widely-known  worker  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  the 
Sunday-school.  In  1867,  and  again  in  1872 
he  went  to  England.  On  the  latter  trip  his 
preaching  was  followed  by  many  decisions 
for  the  Christian  life  and  it  was  arranged 
that  he  should  return  the  next  year.  Thus 
began  the  series  of  ' '  Moody  and  Sankey  Mis- 
sions," in  which  Mr.  Moody  and  Ira  D. 
Sankey,  the  well-known  singer  and  writer  of 
gospel  hymns,  gave  their  combined  efforts 
to  the  work  of  evangelism.  While  engaged 
in  this  work  in  London,  Mr.  Moody  held  two 
hundred  and  eighty-five  meetings,  attended 
by  a  million  and  a  half  people,  within  four 
months.  Such  men  as  Henry  Drummond 
were  enlisted  in  personal  Christian  service, 
[54] 


F aith   in   E v ang elistic   Action 

and  younger  men,  like  Wilfred  T.  Grenfell, 
tlie  missionary  doctor  to  the  Labrador,  be- 
gan tlieir  active  religious  life  as  a  result  of 
the  message  of  Mr.  Moody.  The  newspapers 
often  called  the  Mission  "vulgar"  at  the  be- 
ginning but  soon  changed  their  attitude  to 
one  of  friendly  support.  Mr.  Moody  con- 
ducted evangelistic  campaigns  in  the  United 
States  also  and  with  equal  success.  His 
preaching  was  plain,  direct,  and  vivid.  He 
based  it  all  on  the  Bible.  The  meetings  were 
free  from  the  violent  and  hysterical  expres- 
sions that  marked  the  Great  Awakening,  and 
were  a  most  wholesome  and  efficient  expres- 
sion of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  personal  evan- 
gelistic action. 

During  the  past  twenty-five  years  there 
has  been  a  considerable  change  in  the  gen- 
eral point  of  view  of  Congregationalists  con- 
cerning evangelistic  activity.  This  does  not 
involve  the  loss  of  the  former  emphasis  upon 
the  central  importance  of  individual  de- 
cision to  follow  Christ;  but  it  has  added  a 
much  stronger  conception  of  what  Professor 
Graham  Taylor  has  called  "Religion  in 
Social  A'ction,"  and  it  has  also  affirmed  anew 
the  worth  of  Christian  nurture  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  religious  life.  Congrega- 
tional pastors  like  Eev.  Charles  E.  McKinley 
and  Rev.  William  Byron  Forbush  have  been 
leaders  in  the  most  recent  study  of  the  re- 
ligious life  of  boys  and  girls. 
[55] 


The   Pilgrim   F  aith 

The  motive  which  led  to  the  organization 
of  the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor  was  essentially  evangelistic.  Eev. 
Francis  E.  Clark,  then  pastor  of  the  Wil- 
liston  Congregational  Church  in  Portland, 
Maine,  found  that  the  young  people  of  the 
congregation  needed  to  be  provided  with 
some  avenue  for  the  expression  of  their 
energy  in  common  Christian  service.  He 
therefore  organized  a  society  in  which  they 
might  work  together  for  the  cultivation  of 
their  own  Christian  life  and  especially  in  or- 
der to  bring  others  to  become  followers  of 
Christ.  Thus  was  begun  simply  a  movement 
which  has  spread  around  the  world  within  a 
quarter  of  a  century  and  has  enlisted  mil- 
lions of  young  Christians  in  personal  service 
for  Christ  and  the  Church. 

The  more  recent  emphasis  upon  social 
service  in  evangelism  is  not  always  under- 
stood. Sometimes  it  meets  opposition  from 
those  who  do  not  discern  that  it  is  simply  the 
extension  of  the  former  individual  ideal  into 
wider  social  relationships,  the  appreciation 
of  which  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
twentieth  century.  The  "Men  and  Eeligion 
Forward  Movement"  was  an  application  of 
this  later  conception  and  an  example  of  the 
most  recent  and  most  adequate  expression 
of  the  evangelistic  motive  to  which  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  always  has  been  loyal. 

[56] 


IV 

THE  FAITH  FOUNDING  THE  FREE 
STATE 


IV 

THE    FAITH    FOUNDING    THE    FREE 
STATE 

THE  Pilgrim  Faith  never  has  been  con- 
cerned simply  with  a  world  beyond  the 
stars  nor  with  a  celestial  city  to  be  reached 
after  death.  It  has  been  certain  that  men 
are  to  live  together  on  earth  in  civil  society 
and  has  thrown  itself  with  practical  wisdom 
and  undaunted  passion  into  the  effort  to 
create  forms  of  civil  government  based  upon 
its  principles  of  liberty  and  justice.  Every- 
where it  has  gone  to  work  "to  make  the  moral 
law  the  rule  of  life  for  states  as  well  as  per- 
sons." ^  When  we  seek  for  the  real  begin- 
nings of  the  free  state  in  America  we  must 
go  back  to  Geneva  and  to  the  teachings  of 
John  Calvin.  Indeed,  as  John  Richard 
Green  has  said,  "It  is  in  Calvinism  that  the 
modem  world  strikes  its  roots.  "^  Out  of 
it  grew  those  great  principles  of  democracy 
on  which  all  the  American  states  have 
founded  their  institutions  and  in  which  the 

1  Froude,  "Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,"  p.   13. 

2  "History  of  the  English  People,"  Vol.  3,  p.  114. 

[59] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

federal  government  finds  its  warrant.  The 
idea  of  a  congregation  with  the  rights  to  gov- 
ern itself  and  to  choose  its  own  leaders  passed 
over  into  the  conception  of  a  body  of  citi- 
zens with  power  to  make  their  own  laws,  elect 
their  own  officers,  and  control  their  own  af- 
fairs for  the  common  good. 

One  of  the  questions  that  has  been  most 
bitterly  debated  for  centuries  has  been  the 
relation  of  the  Church  and  the  State.  So 
far  as  organization  is  concerned,  modern 
forms  of  democratic  civil  government  in  the 
United  States  grew  directly  out  of  the 
Church. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  already  learned 
in  England  and  Holland  how  to  organize 
a  church  on  the  basis  of  their  fundamental 
principle  that  the  congregation  possesses 
in  itself  all  the  power  necessary  to  elect 
its  own  officers  and  to  prescribe  their  pow- 
ers. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  when  the  May- 
flower reached  Provincetown,  on  Cape  Cod, 
and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  found  themselves 
unable  to  make  a  settlement  in  the  terri- 
tory where  they  had  been  given  per- 
mission to  land,  they  knew  exactly  how  to 
proceed  in  meeting  the  situation.  They  had 
no  right  to  discharge  any  civil  functions  ex- 
cept as  they  exercised  the  native  political 
power  resident  in  all  men  to  create  necessary 
forms  of  political  government.  In  the  cabin 
[60] 


F aith   Founding   Free   State 

of  the  Mayflower,  November  21,  1620,  they 
drew  up  and  signed  a  civil  agreement,  just 
as  they  had  formerly  united  in  a  religious 
covenant.  This  agreement  became  the  basis 
of  their  civil  state,  and  is  commonly  known 
as  the  "Mayflower  Compact."  It  reads  as 
follows : 

''In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose 
names  are  vnder-written,  the  loyall  Subjects 
of  our  dread  soveraigne  Lord  King  lAMES, 
by  the  grace  of  God  of  Great  Britaine, 
France,  and  Ireland  King,  Defender  of  the 
Faith,  «&c. 

"Having  vnder-taken  for  the  glory  of 
God,  and  advancement  of  the  Christian 
Faith,  and  honour  of  our  King  and  Countrey, 
a  Voyage  to  plant  the  first  Colony  in  the 
Northerne  parts  of  VIRGINIA,  doe  by  these 
presents  solemnly  &  mutually  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  one  of  another,  covenant, 
and  combine  our  selues  together  into  a  civill 
body  politike,  for  our  better  ordering  and 
preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends 
aforesaid;  and  by  vertue  hereof  to  enact, 
constitute,  and  frame  such  iust  and  equall 
Lawes,  Ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  offices 
from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most 
meet  and  convenient  for  the  generall  good 
of  the  Colony:  vnto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience.  In  witnesse 
whereof  we  haue  here-vnder  subscribed  our 
names,  Cape  Cod  11.  of  November,  in  the 
[61] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

yeare  of  the  raigne  of  our  soveraigne  Lord 
King  lAMES,  of  England,  France,  and  Ire- 
land 18.  and  of  Scotland  54.  Anno  Domino 
1620." 

They  then  proceeded  to  choose  a  governor 
under  their  covenant  and  the  state  was  be- 
gun. ^ 

This  little  constitution  is  a  very  sacred 
thing  for  more  reasons  than  one.  It  was 
the  earliest  written  document  expressing  the 
political  aspect  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  New 
England.  Bancroft  has  said  that  ''popular 
constitutional  liberty"  had  its  beginning 
with  this  Mayflower  Compact.  Thus  by  the 
action  of  forty-one  men  in  the  cabin  of  a 
little  vessel  riding  uneasily  in  a  Massachu- 
setts harbor  a  church  organized  a  state  in- 
stead of  waiting  to  be  organized  by  a  state. 
So  much  had  the  conditions  been  changed 
since  the  earlier  days  in  old  England,  when 
the  church  was  made  to  depend  upon  civil 
authority. 

There  is  no  better  example  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Congregational  churches  and  their 
pastors  influenced  the  political  life  of  the 
colonies  than  is  seen  in  the  case  of  Thomas 
Hooker  and  the  constitution  of  the  State  of 
Connecticut. 

It  was  the  year  1638  when  Eev.  Thomas 

Hooker     of    Hartford,     according    to     the 

colonial  custom,  preached  a  sermon  before 

the  Legislature  of  Connecticut,  or  as  it  was 

[  62  ] 


Faith   Founding    Free    State 

then  called,  the  General  Court.  In  this  ser- 
mon he  laid  down  the  general  principles  of 
those  fundamental  laws  that  were  to  govern 
the  Colony  under  the  constitution  which  the 
Legislature  adopted  formally  in  January, 
1639.  The  story  of  the  discovery  of  this 
sermon  is  most  interesting.  Notes  on  it  were 
taken  by  Mr.  Henry  Wolcott,  Jr.,  of  Windsor, 
in  a  very  peculiar  shorthand.  The  little  book 
containing  them  remained  unread  for  nearly 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  years,  when  it 
was  finally  deciphered  and  the  full  meaning 
given  by  a  very  distinguished  scholar.  Dr.  J. 
Hammond  Trumbull,  of  Hartford.  All  we 
have  now  is  the  outline  of  the  sermon  which 
could  easily  be  printed  on  a  page  four  by  six 
inches.  The  discourse  affirms  the  principle 
that  the  foundation  of  all  authority  in  the 
State  is  laid  in  the  free  consent  of  the  citizens. 
It  is  by  God's  owm  gift  that  the  right  to  choose 
public  officers  belongs  to  the  people  alone. 
They  ought,  indeed,  to  exercise  this  right 
according  to  the  will  and  law  of  God  as  they 
know  it.  It  is  also  within  the  power  of  the 
people  fully  to  determine  the  limits  of  the 
authority  of  those  magistrates  whom  they 
elect.  This  sermon  was  undoubtedly 
preached  in  great  fullness  of  detail  and 
came  from  the  recognized  leader  of  the 
Colony.  Hooker  was  a  man  of  commanding 
intellectual  strength,  eloquent  in  utterance, 
and  the  influence  of  this  election  sermon 
[63] 


The   Pilg rim   Faith 

upon  the  legislators  who  were  called  to  draft 
the  Constitution  and  frame  the  laws  for  the 
new  Commonwealth  was  profound.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  notice  that  while  the  Mayflower 
Compact  began  with  a  reference  to  "our 
dread  soveraigne  King  James,"  there  is  no 
such  recognition  of  royalty  in  this  sermon  of 
Thomas  Hooker  nor  in  the  constitution  and 
laws  that  were  framed  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples that  he  laid  down.  Each  citizen  was 
to  perform  his  duties  according  to  his  concep- 
tion of  the  will  and  law  of  God,  and  for  the 
fulfillment  of  that  sacred  trust  he  was  re- 
sponsible to  God  alone. 

As  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  says:  "That  ser- 
mon by  Thomas  Hooker  from  the  pulpit  of 
the  First  Church  in  Hartford,  is  the  earliest 
known  suggestion  of  a  fundamental  law,  en- 
acted not  by  royal  charter,  nor  by  concession 
from  any  previously  existing  government, 
but  by  the  people  themselves." 

The  influence  of  Hooker's  sermon,  how- 
ever, did  not  end  with  the  Constitution  and 
fundamental  statutes  of  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut. The  principles  which  he  defined 
and  defended  were  wrought  into  the  basic 
laws  of  other  states  and  the  national  Consti- 
tution was  modelled  after  the  Connecticut 
document. 

John  Fiske  says  concerning  the  Connecti- 
cut Constitution  of  1639:  "It  was  the  first 
written  Constitution  known  to  history  that 
[64] 


Faith   Founding   Free   State 

created  a  government,  and  it  marked  the  be- 
ginnings of  American  democracy,  of  which 
Thomas  Hooker  deserves  more  than  any 
other  man  to  be  called  the  father.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  to-day  is  in 
lineal  descent  more  nearly  related  to  that  of 
Connecticut  than  to  that  of  any  other  of  the 
thirteen  colonies." 

But  it  is  through  the  direct  influence  of 
the  ministers  upon  legislation  that  the  energy 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  has  been  exerted  in  the 
creation  of  civic  institutions.  It  was  said 
that  the  principles  which  Eev.  John  Cotton 
preached  from  his  Boston  pulpit  were 
wrought  into  laws  by  the  members  of  the 
General  Court,  or  Legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts. So  strong  was  the  influence  of  the 
minister  upon  public  opinion  in  early  New 
England  that  he  shaped  the  institutions  of 
the  state  indirectly  by  every  sermon.  As 
Professor  Charles  F.  Richardson  has  said: 
**It  is  not  easy  in  these  days  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  laity,  to  estimate  rightly  the 
power  of  the  ministers  in  early  New  England. 
Few  Roman  Catholic  priests  exercise  a  more 
potent  control  over  their  congregation  than 
did  these  ministers  and  servants  of  the  First 
Churches  of  Boston,  Salem,  Plymouth,  over 
their  independent  and  democratic  flocks. 
Theoretically,  the  minister  was  but  one 
among  the  congregation,  or  rather  the  body 
of  church-members;  practically  however,  he 
[65] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

was  a  force  in  public  affairs  and  in  social 
order."  ^ 

This  political  influence  of  the  New  Eng- 
land ministers  is  well  illustrated  by  the  case 
of  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard,  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  for 
fifty-two  years,  beginning  in  1672.  These 
were  the  days  when  "the  elders  continued  to 
be  consulted  in  every  affair  of  importance. 
The  share  they  held  in  temporal  aifairs 
added  to  the  weight  they  had  acquired  from 
their  spiritual  employments,  and  they  were 
in  high  esteem."  Jonathan  Edwards  was 
Stoddard's  grandson,  and  he  wrote  regard- 
ing his  grandfather:  ''The  officers  and 
leaders  of  Northampton  imitated  his  man- 
ners, which  were  dogmatic,  and  thought  it 
an  excellency  to  be  like  him."  The  Indians, 
quickly  appreciating  this  situation,  often 
spoke  of  Mr.  Stoddard  as  "the  Englishman's 
God.  "2 

Toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury one  of  the  most  significant  documents 
in  the  history  of  the  United  States  was  ap- 
proved by  Congress.  It  was  known  as  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  and  created  the  territorial 
system  of  government,  applying  it  to  the 
great  Northwest  Territory  out  of  which  have 
been  carved  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,     Michigan,     and    Wisconsin.     This 

1  "American  Literature,"  Vol.  I,  1887,  p.  119. 

2  Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  1889,  p.  39. 

[66] 


F aith    Founding    Free    State 

miglity  wedge  of  rich  country  lay  in  the  em- 
brace of  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
Great  Lakes,  and  the  character  of  its  moral 
standards  and  political  control  was  vital  to 
the  entire  nation.  The  Ordinance  provided 
that  the  total  area  should  be  divided  into 
territories,  with  the  provision  that  when  any 
one  of  these  should  contain  sixty  thousand 
inhabitants  it  should  become  a  state  with  full 
rights :  that  is,  these  territories  were  to  be 
regarded  as  '' nascent  states/*  Generous 
provisions  were  made  for  the  support  of  edu- 
cation. Freedom  of  religious  belief  and  wor- 
ship was  granted  to  every  citizen;  trial  by 
jury  was  assured  to  every  criminal.  Most 
important  of  all,  the  holding  of  slaves  within 
the  border  of  the  Territory  was  forbidden 
forever.  Thus  was  that  great  region  saved 
to  human  freedom. 

Many  hands  helped  in  shaping  the  Ordi- 
nance and  in  appropriating  the  advantages 
that  were  offered  to  settlers  under  its  pro- 
visions. The  chief  person,  however,  who 
worked  for  the  final  draft  of  the  Act  as  it  was 
passed  and  who  also  took  advantage  of  its 
provisions  in  a  practical  way,  was  Rev. 
Manasseh  Cutler,  a  minister-statesman  of 
the  type  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and  other 
New  England  leaders.  He  was  a  man  of 
versatile  powers.  In  1771  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Hamilton, 
then  a  part  of  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  and 
[67] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

remained  in  that  relation  for  fifty-two  years. 
He  served  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
and  in  the  national  Congress,  and  was 
offered  other  important  political  appoint- 
ments which  he  felt  obliged  to  decline.  His 
chief  service  to  the  State,  however,  lay  in  the 
fact  that  from  his  hand  probably  came  the 
draft  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  How  far  he 
foresaw  the  future  of  the  great  region  to 
which  this  Act  guaranteed  a  civil  constitu- 
tion we  cannot  tell ;  but  the  value  of  his  serv- 
ice is  none  the  less  great. 

In  speaking  of  this  important  piece  of  leg- 
islation, Daniel  Webster  said:  "I  doubt 
whether  one  single  law  of  any  law-giver,  an- 
cient or  modern,  has  produced  effects  of  more 
distinct,  marked,  and  lasting  character  than 
the  Ordinance  of  1787."  ^  Theodore  Roose- 
velt says  of  it:  ''The  Ordinance  of  1787  was 
so  wide-reaching  in  its  effects,  was  drawn  in 
accordance  with  so  lofty  a  morality  and  such 
far-seeing  statesmanship,  and  was  fraught 
with  such  weal  for  the  nation,  that  it  will  ever 
rank  among  the  foremost  of  American  state 
papers.  "2 

Iowa  has  often  been  called  the  ''Massa- 
chusetts of  the  West."  In  the  development 
of  its  civic  ideals  the  men  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  have  borne  a  part  conspicuous  enough 

1  Quoted  in  John  Fiske,  "The  Critical  Period  of  American 
History,"  1889,  p.  206. 

2  "The  Winning  of  the  West,"  V:  36. 

[68] 


F aith   Founding   Free   State 

to  warrant  the  description.  The  immigra- 
tion by  which  Iowa  was  first  peopled  came 
from  the  South  and  from  other  sections  of 
the  country  where  Southern  sentiment  pre- 
vailed, quite  as  much  as  from  New  England. 
It  was  not  until  the  slavery  question  had  come 
into  a  place  of  prominence  among  national 
issues  that  immigration  from  New  England 
was  quickened  and  a  great  change  took  place. 
Instead  of  being  democratic  in  politics  and 
favorable  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  Iowa, 
under  the  superb  leadership  of  Governor 
James  W.  Grimes,  swung  into  line  as  a  foe 
of  slavery.  This  change  was  due  primarily 
to  the  personal  activity  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Congregational  churches.  ''They  brought 
the  New  England  conscience  to  bear  upon 
the  problems  of  the  day  and  place,  and  by 
their  untiring  advocacy  of  justice  and  free- 
dom helped  to  mould  the  public  feeling  and 
determine  the  public  attitude  upon  these 
questions."  ^ 

Eev.  Asa  Turner,  one  of  the  most  individ- 
ual and  forceful  pioneer  leaders  that  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  ever  has  produced,  was  undoubt- 
edly the  man  upon  whose  personal  influence 
shifted  the  tide  of  events  which  issued  in  the 
election  of  Governor  Grimes;  an  election 
that,  in  turn,  materially  influenced  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Eepublican  party.  Mr. 
Turner  drafted  on  the  back  of  a  letter  with 

1  Douglass,  "Pilgrims  of  Iowa,"  1911,  p.  292. 

[69] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

a  pencil  the  terse  ''platform"  wliicli  was  ac- 
cepted in  the  convention  where  the  critical 
moment  was  passed  and  adequate  support 
for  Mr.  Grimes  as  the  gubernatorial  candi- 
date was  insured  for  governor.^  Mr.  Grimes, 
who  was  then  serving  with  great  distinction 
as  'United  States  senator,  said  in  an  address 
delivered  in  1863  that  he  and  public  servants 
like  him  were  made  by  the  sentiments  of  such 
Congregational  ministers  and  laymen  as  were 
gathered  in  the  meeting  of  the  Congrega- 
tional State  Association,  and  also  affirmed: 
''I  am  myself  the  foster-son  of  him  whom 
you  call  Father  Turner." 

Dr.  William  Salter  was  a  member  of  the 
Iowa  Band.  In  1902  an  oil  portrait  of  him 
was  unveiled  in  Des  Moines  in  the  gallery  of 
the  state  Historical  Society,  the  Hall  of  Fame 
of  Iowa.  In  presenting  this  portrait,  Hon. 
Frank  Springer  said : 

''His  life  represents  the  history  of  Iowa. 
He  was  a  part  of  it;  he  helped  to  make  it. 
...  In  the  times  that  tried  our  souls,  when 
the  sons  of  Iowa  were  offering  their  lives, 
he  went  into  the  field,  preaching  the  gospel 
of  patriotism,  fortitude  and  good  cheer,  to 
our  heroes  at  the  front.  In  war  and  in  peace, 
to  the  camp  and  to  the  hearthstone,  he  has 
brought  to  grateful  thousands  of  Iowa's  best 
and  noblest  sons  and  daughters  the  consola- 
tions, not  only  of  religion,  but  of  a  charity 

1  Magoun,  "Asa  Turner,"  1889,  pp.  287,  289. 

[70] 


Faith   Founding   Free   State 

not  bounded  by  any  churcli  or  creed,  but 
broad  as  the  precept  of  his  Divine  Master. 
There  is  scarcely  a  family  in  southeastern 
Iowa,  among  the  pioneers  who  builded  this 
state  and  their  descendants,  to  whom  at  some 
time  and  in  some  way,  his  words  have  not 
been  a  comfort,  and  his  presence  a  benedic- 
tion.'^ 

In  accepting  the  portrait.  Governor  Cum- 
mins said: 

''Not  the  politicians,  not  the  captains  of 
industry,  not  the  leaders  in  great  material 
enterprises  of  the  state  have  made  Iowa  what 
she  is,  but  men  such  as  this,  men  of  his  char- 
acter and  of  his  class,  these  are  the  men  who 
have  made  Iowa  a  great,  noble,  peerless, 
Christian  commonwealth."^ 

Thus  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  have 
wrought  well  for  the  civic  welfare  of  the 
great  commonwealths  of  the  central  West. 

There  is  yet  another  record  of  dis- 
tinguished public  service  in  the  shaping  of 
the  free  state  which  continues  the  story  that 
we  have  been  following — the  record  of  Joseph 
Ward.  It  was  into  the  rough  river  town  of 
Yankton,  South  Dakota,  that  he  went  from 
New  England  with  his  young  wife,  in  1869. 
There  he  began  twenty  years  of  service  as 
minister,  college  founder  and  president,  and 
eminent  public  servant  which  is  among  the 
illustrious  stories  of  heroism  in  the  history 

1  Douglass,  'Tilgrims  of  Iowa,"  1911,  p.  294. 

[71] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  We  are  concerned, 
however,  only  with  the  personal  contribution 
which  he  made  to  the  Constitution  of  South 
Dakota  and  with  his  successful  fight  for  state- 
hood under  the  sanction  of  popular  liberty 
and  against  the  opposition  of  selfish  poli- 
ticians inspired  by  partisan  greed.^ 

In  1879  the  area  of  the  present  states  of 
North  Dakota  and  South  Dakota  composed 
Dakota  Territory.  The  admission  of  a  state 
to  the  Union  was  generally  supposed  to  de- 
pend upon  the  passage  of  an  enabling  act  by 
the  national  Congress,  although  Michigan 
had  set  an  example  of  forceful  independent 
action  by  herself  adopting  a  constitution  and 
electing  officers,  according  to  the  fundamen- 
tal principles  of  Congregationalism,  in  1835- 
36. 

In  1879  a  Thanksgiving  dinner  was  served 
at  the  home  of  Rev.  Stewart  Sheldon,^  and 
there  a  group  of  men  discussed  conditions  in 
the  Territory  and  set  in  motion  a  most  im- 
portant movement,  which  involved  a  ten- 
year's  struggle.  They  determined  that  they 
would  push  resolutely  for  statehood,  plan- 
ning to  divide  the  Territory  into  two  states 

iThe  story  of  this  struggle  is  told  in  a  chapter  of  a 
manuscript,  soon  to  be  published,  by  Professor  George  Har- 
rison Durand,  vice-president  of  Yankton  College,  under  the 
title,  "Joseph  Ward,  of  Dakota."  For  the  use  of  this  manu- 
script the  writer  expresses  grateful  acknowledgment. 

2  Father  of  Kev.  Charles  M.  Sheldon  of  Topeka  and 
brother-in-law  of  Joseph  Ward. 

[72] 


F aitli   Founding   Free   State 

and  to  secure  the  adoption  of  a  constitution 
that  would  forever  safeguard  the  value  of  the 
lands  set  apart  by  the  federal  government 
for  the  support  of  the  public  schools  in  new 
states.  These  lands,  whenever  they  should 
be  thrown  upon  the  market  for  sale,  were 
likely  to  be  sought  as  a  prize  for  speculation 
and  therefore  it  was  desirable  that  a  mini- 
mum price  should  be  fixed  for  their  sale,  in 
order  to  conserve  the  funds  for  educational 
purposes.  Opposition  to  the  admission  of 
one  or  two  states  formed  from  Dakota  Terri- 
tory was  inevitable  because  of  political  con- 
ditions at  the  time.  Political  sentiment  in 
the  Territory  was  against  the  ruling  party 
in  Washington,  who  would  not  permit  the 
admission  of  states  whose  representatives  in 
Congress  would  vote  against  them.  Thus 
the  rights  of  the  people  to  self-government 
in  a  great  territory  were  shamelessly  sub- 
verted by  selfish  partisan  politics. 

Joseph  Ward  was  engrossed  with  his  work 
in  church  and  college,  but  the  cause  of  popu- 
lar liberty  and  the  guarding  of  the  people's 
property  called  forth  his  utmost  resources. 
One  of  his  closest  friends  said: 

''He  was  emphatically  a  people's  man,  fav- 
oring everything  that  looked  toward  honest, 
free  and  fair  government.  He  was  deeply 
versed  in  New  England  polity,  and  was  a 
profound  believer  in  the  fundamental  and 
most  fruitful  principle  of  New  England  po- 
[73] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

litical  institutions,  local  self-government." 
Inspired  and  led  by  Dr.  "Ward,  the  various 
movements  outlined  above  were  set  in  mo- 
tion. We  cannot  describe  in  detail  the  for- 
tunes of  the  campaign.  Dr.  Ward  was  al- 
ways in  the  forefront  of  it  and  was  espe- 
cially active  in  the  matter  of  the  school  lands. 
The  principle  that  the  people  had  the  right 
and  power  to  take  the  initiative  and  form  a 
state  government  without  waiting  for  an  en- 
abling act  from  Congress  sounds  precisely 
like  the  propositions  that  Robert  Browne  and 
all  other  Congregationalists  have  constantly 
defended.  To  carry  this  principle  into  effect 
Statehood  Clubs,  uniting  in  a  Citizen's  Con- 
stitutional Association,  were  organized 
throughout  the  Territory.  Thus  was  inaug- 
urated what  has  been  called  "the  most  meri- 
torious nonpartisan  public  movement  ever 
begun  in  the  West. "  In  it  Dr.  Ward  was  the 
leading  spirit. 

In  1882  the  first  constitutional  convention 
was  held.  The  committee  on  resolutions  set 
forth  the  purpose  and  importance  of  the 
meeting,  using  this  significant  sentence: 

"It  is  not  boasting  to  say  that  in  subse- 
quent generations  men  will  quote  the  work 
of  today  as  similar  to  that  done  by  the  Pil- 
grims in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  when 
they  put  their  names  to  the  compact  which 
was  afterwards  expanded  into  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Massachusetts." 
[74] 


F aitli   Founding    Free    State 

The  resolution  closed  in  these  words,  which 
are  certainly  from  Dr.  Ward's  own  pen: 

''In  short  the  whole  work  of  the  convention 
has  demonstrated  as  never  before  that  the 
people  are  sovereign;  that  political  parties 
are  only  convenient  forms  for  carrying  out 
the  wishes  of  the  people ;  that  the  people  are 
at  any  time  stronger  than  any  and  all  par- 
ties; that  if  occasion  arise  they  know  per- 
fectly how  to  act  and  are  ready  to  act  for 
themselves — not  under  the  name  of  any 
party,  but  simply  as  the  people." 

Dr.  Ward  was  the  author  of  the  motto  of 
the  state  of  South  Dakota,  "Under  God  the 
People  rule."  This  sums  up  the  very  spirit 
of  the  struggle  for  statehood  which  Dr.  Ward 
led,  for  it  was  religious  in  its  spirit  and  was 
grounded  in  unwavering  faith  in  the  rights 
of  the  people. 

The  battle  was  won  in  1889.  Judge  Bart- 
lett  Tripp,  one  of  the  most  influential  citi- 
zens of  South  Dakota,  who  was  in  the  move- 
ment from  the  beginning,  has  said  fre- 
quently, "Joseph  Ward  was  the  prime  mover 
in  the  whole  thing."  So  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
exhibited  in  the  Dakotas  that  power  which  it 
has  shown  from  the  beginning  of  its  activity 
to  shape  the  institutions  of  the  state  accord- 
ing to  its  ideal  of  popular  liberty. 


[75] 


Y 

THE  FAITH  AND  EDUCATION 


V 

THE  FAITH  AND  EDUCATION 

ONE  of  the  severest  tests  that  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  has  met — and  met  successfully — 
is  concerned  with  its  attitude  towards  educa- 
tion. It  has  been  said  that '' ignorance  is  the 
mother  of  devotion."  This  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  has  strenuously  and  steadfastly  denied, 
maintaining  rather  that  true  culture  is  the 
friend  of  devotion  and  that  knowledge  is  the 
safeguard  of  religion. 

An  outstanding  fact  in  the  early  history  of 
the  Congregational  churches  is  that  their 
ministers  were  men  of  thorough  academic 
training  and  of  unusual  mental  strength. 
The  great  majority  of  them  were  graduates 
of  Cambridge  and  had  received  the  best  train- 
ing that  England  could  afford.  They 
brought  with  them  to  America  the  funda- 
mental idea  that  a  growing  church  can  be  effi- 
ciently served  only  by  an  educated  ministry. 

This  principle  has  remained  unbroken 
among  Congregational  churches  in  America 
from  the  beginning  of  their  history,  and  they 
have  been  consistently  the  founders  of 
schools  and  the  promoters  of  education.  In 
[79]. 


The   Pilgrim   F  aith 

many  respects  they  are  best  characterized  as 
'Hhe  Church  that  educates."  In  foreign 
missionary  work,  also,  the  importance  of  edu- 
cation has  been  emphasized.  Congrega- 
tional mission  stations  around  the  world 
make  use  of  the  printing  press,  academic 
schools,  and  other  agencies  calculated  to  train 
mind  and  hand. 

It  was  inevitable  that  if  there  were  to  be 
common  schools  in  the  Colonies  they  must  be 
created  by  the  State,  which  was,  we  have 
seen,  practically  identical  with  the  Church. 
Boston,  Hartford,  and  New  Haven  all  estab- 
lished common  schools  very  early.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts in  1647  the  Legislature  ordered 
that  as  soon  as  any  township  should  have 
fifty  households  it  should  appoint  a  teacher 
for  elementary  instruction  and  that  when  the 
population  included  one  hundred  families  a 
grammar  school  should  be  established.  Con- 
necticut followed  this  example.  The  idea  of 
the  Colonists  in  making  these  provisions  was 
that  through  education  the  people  might  have 
a  better  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  Thus  a  re- 
ligious purpose  lay  behind  the  whole  system 
of  education. 

The  business  of  founding  a  college  in  Mas- 
sachusetts was  also  attended  to  early.  In 
1636  the  Legislature  voted  four  hundred 
pounds  for  a  "college."  The  new  institu- 
tion was  located  at  Newtown,  the  name  of 
[80] 


TIMOTHY    DWIGHT  J.    H-    FAIRCHILD 

MARK    HOPKINS 
JAMES    B.    ANGELL  WILLIAM    G.    TUCKER 


The   Faith    and   Education 

which  place  was  changed  to  Cambridge,  and 
when  Rev,  John  Harvard  left  the  college  a 
donation  of  books,  it  was  named  ''Harvard 
College"  in  gratitude  to  him.  Thus  Har- 
vard College  was  founded  by  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  order  that  a  learned  ministry 
might  not  fail  them  when  those  who  then  led 
them  should  sleep  in  the  dust.  The  first 
graduation  was  held  in  1642,  and  from  that 
time  until  Yale  College  was  founded,  in  1701, 
Harvard  was  the  single  source  which  con- 
stantly sent  a  supply  of  ministers  into  the 
service  of  the  churches  in  New  England. 
The  college  has  grown  into  a  university  and 
is  historically  the  most  distinguished  educa- 
tional institution  in  the  United  States. 
Early  in  the  last  century  it  became  affiliated 
with  the  Unitarian  movement,  but  it  always 
will  remain  as  the  great  College  which  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  founded  at  the  beginning  of 
its  three  centuries  of  service  in  America. 

A  concrete  example  of  the  interest  of  the 
colonial  leaders  in  schools  is  seen  in  the  re- 
port of  a  prayer  which  Rev.  John  Eliot  of- 
fered at  the  Reforming  Synod  in  1679 : 

''Lord,  for  schools  everywhere  among  us! 
That  our  schools  may  flourish !  That  every 
member  of  this  assembly  may  go  home,  and 
procure  a  good  school  to  be  encouraged  in  the 
town  where  he  lives!  That  before  we  die, 
we  may  be  so  happy  as  to  see  a  good  school 
[81] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

encouraged    in     every    plantation    of    the 
country."  ^ 

Even  after  the  founding  of  Harvard  it  was 
necessary  for  students  from  New  Haven  and 
Connecticut  Colonies  to  make  a  long  and  in- 
convenient journey  to  Cambridge  in  order  to 
secure  a  college  education.  In  1701  the  de- 
sire for  a  seat  of  learning  closer  at  hand  took 
shape  in  the  organization  of  Yale  College.  A 
board  of  trustees  consisting  of  ten  ministers 
from  the  colony  was  appointed  to  begin  a  new 
institution  in  Connecticut.  All  but  one  of 
these  were  graduates  of  Harvard.  For  fif- 
teen years  the  school  which  they  established 
wandered  from  place  to  place;  there  were 
only  a  few  students  and  they  lived  in  the 
house  of  the  rector  appointed  by  the  trustees. 
In  1718  a  permanent  building  was  erected  for 
the  college  in  New  Haven  and  it  received  its 
name  in  honor  of  Elihu  Yale.  It  did  not 
grow  very  rapidly,  however,  and  in  1795, 
when  Timothy  Dwight  became  president,  it 
had  only  about  one  hundred  students,  with 
president,  one  professor  and  three  tutors. 
From  that  time  until  the  present  the  College 
has  steadily  increased  in  numbers  until  it 
ranks  as  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  country. 
Harvard  and  Yale  will  always  stand  together 
as  the  visible  sign  of  that  passionate  love  for 
education  which  burned  in  the  hearts  of  the 
founders  of  New  England. 

1  Mather,  "Magnalia,"  1855,  Vol.  1,  p.  551. 

[82] 


The   Faith    and   Educatio 


n 


The  education  of  Indian  boys  was  not  over- 
looked in  the  early  days.  Rev.  Eleazar 
Wheelock  of  Lebanon,  Conn.,  took  a  young 
Mohegan,  Samson  Occom,  into  the  little 
school  that  he  maintained  in  his  own  home. 
This  was  in  1743.  The  lad  became  one  of  the 
most  widely-known  Indians  ever  educated  in 
America.  The  tale  of  Pocahontas  breathes 
the  atmosphere  of  romance  and  uncertainty; 
but  the  story  of  Occom 's  solid  attainments 
and  abiding  work  moves  in  the  realm  of  fact 
and  history.  The  success  of  the  effort  to 
train  Occom  in  the  Wheelock  home  suggested 
the  idea  of  bringing  in  other  Indian  boys  and 
placing  them  under  the  direct  influence  not 
only  of  a  school  but  also  of  a  Christian 
family.  Eleazar  Wheelock  anticipated  all 
the  modern  ideas  regarding  the  influence  of 
neighborliness  in  social  settlements.  We 
cannot  trace  here  the  story  of  this  school  ex- 
cept in  brief  outline.  It  remained  in  the 
Wheelock  parsonage  at  Lebanon  for  a  time 
and  then  moved  into  the  wilderness  to  the 
north  and  located  at  the  present  town  of  Han- 
over, N.  H.  Here  it  finally  developed  into 
Dartmouth  College,  from  which  a  host  of 
trained  leaders  have  gone  forth  into  the  so- 
called  professions  and  into  business.  And 
this  college  grew  out  of  the  missionary  pas- 
sion of  a  minister  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

The  story  of  the  founding  of  Oberlin  Col- 
lege is  a  thrilling  record  of  self-sacrifice  in 
[83] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

tlie  effort  to  realize  a  great  ideal.  The  vision 
came  to  definition  first  in  the  minds  of  two 
men,  John  J.  Shipherd  and  Philo  P.  Stewart. 
Both  were  without  liberal  education  or  finan- 
cial resources,  but  both  were  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  religious  needs  of  the  cen- 
tral West.  Mr.  Shipherd  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  great  Christian  community  with  a  school 
system  designed  especially  to  furnish  ade- 
quate training,  including  courses  in  theology, 
to  workers  for  the  needy  fields  in  the  West. 
Even  before  a  place  in  which  to  carry  out  the 
plan  had  been  selected  it  was  named  after 
the  great  German  pastor,  Oberlin. 

A  location  was  then  found;  funds  and 
friends  were  secured  in  New  England  and 
New  York.  The  enthusiasm  of  Mr.  Shipherd 
accomplished  almost  incredible  results  and  in 
1833  a  beginning  was  made.  The  forest  was 
cleared,  rude  buildings  were  erected  and 
school  was  opened.  There  were  many  char- 
acteristic features  in  the  Oberlin  system  of 
education.  The  living  was  as  plain  as  the 
thinking  was  expected  to  be  high.  At  the 
beginning,  board  on  the  vegetarian  basis  cost 
the  student  seventy  cents  a  week,  while  a 
charge  of  one  dollar  per  week  was  made  for 
board  including  meat  at  two  meals  each  day. 
Manual  labor  was  expected  from  all  the  stu- 
dents and  was  considered  an  essential  ele- 
ment in  keeping  the  body  fit  for  mental  tasks. 
[84] 


The   Faith    and   Education 

Four  hours  was  the  amount  of  time  regularly 
allotted  to  physical  work  in  each  student's 
daily  schedule.  A  Congregational  church 
was  organized  in  1835.  A  theological  de- 
partment was  soon  begun,  and  gathered  its 
student  body  quickly  from  a  large  group 
whose  abolition  principles  had  made  them 
unwelcome  at  Lane  Seminary  in  Cincinnati. 

This  incident  indicates  the  general  attitude 
and  temper  of  the  founders  of  Oberlin.  Pro- 
foundly earnest  men  they  were ;  and  although 
sometimes,  during  the  early  days,  they  as- 
sumed positions  which  were  radical  and  im- 
possible to  maintain,  Oberlin  usually  took 
high  and  tenable  ground  in  theology  and  on 
all  moral  questions.  The  cause  of  abolition 
found  unwavering  champions  there ;  the  Col- 
lege was  opened  to  negroes.  Rev.  Charles 
G.  Finney  had  been  deeply  interested  in  the 
Institution  from  its  earliest  days  and  became 
one  of  its  professors  in  1835.  Later  he  as- 
sumed the  presidency,  which  he  held  until 
1866. 

The  missionary  interest  was  strong  in 
Oberlin  from  the  outset.  Work  was  done  for 
the  fugitive  slaves  in  Canada ;  a  group  went 
from  the  College  to  Jamaica  to  work  among 
the  colored  people;  Oberlin  men  opened  a 
mission  in  Africa  in  1841;  and  two  years 
later  this  educational  outpost  in  Ohio  sent 
ten  men  and  women  to  preach  among  the 
[85] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

Indians  in  the  Northwest.  In  the  meantime 
Mr.  Finney  was  carrying  on  his  wonderful 
evangelistic  work  throughout  the  country. 

In  the  town  of  Oberlin  the  earnestness  of 
the  community  was  equalled  only  by  that  of 
the  students.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  a 
recitation  hour  to  be  given  up  to  a  religious 
subject  and  almost  annually  the  work  of  the 
College  would  be  suspended  for  a  time,  while 
religious  meetings  were  being  held. 

One  of  the  remarkable  facts  in  the  history 
of  Oberlin  is  the  rapid  rise  in  its  student  body. 
Although  at  the  beginning  the  College  was  in 
the  wilderness,  students  came  from  great  dis- 
tances to  attend  it.  At  the  end  of  ten  years 
its  roll  included  six  hundred  names.  In  the 
history  of  our  educational  institutions  there 
is  hardly  another  case  of  such  rapid  growth. 
Except  during  the  period  of  the  Civil  War  the 
student  body  of  Oberlin  has  been  very  large. 
Its  work  for  the  Kingdom  of  Grod  has  been 
consistent  and  effective  and  furnishes  one  of 
the  noblest  examples  of  the  service  rendered 
to  the  higher  life  of  America  by  the  Pilgrim 
Faith. 

As  the  Home  Missionary  movement  worked 
its  way  westward,  it  carried  not  only  the  re- 
ligious passions  of  the  early  preachers  and 
pastors,  but  also  the  educational  ideals  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith.  The  zeal  of  the  home  mis- 
sionaries for  education  is  illustrated  by  the 
words  of  Rev.  Joseph  "Ward  of  South  Dakota 
[86] 


The   Faith   and  E ducation 

as  he  saw  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  Eed 
River  valley: 

' '  The  whole  valley  is  filling  up  with  immi- 
grants. They  are  laying  the  foundation  for 
a  commonwealth  larger  than  England,  Scot- 
land and  Wales,  and  leaving  out  God.  Dare 
we  let  them  go  on  without  the  Bible  and  the 
spelling  book!"  ^ 

When  a  group  of  Andover  students  decided 
to  go  West  as  the  Iowa  Band  in  1842,  Eph- 
raim  Adams,  one  of  their  number,  said,  ''If 
each  one  of  us  can  only  plant  one  good  per- 
manent church,  and  all  together  build  a  col- 
lege what  a  work  that  would  be."  Rev.  Asa 
Turner  who  was  on  the  ground  in  the  new 
country,  had  the  same  ideal  and  said  to  a 
member  of  the  Band,  "We  must  take  steps 
to  found  a  college."  In  1844  the  first  plans 
were  made  by  the  little  group  of  ministers  for 
the  establishment  of  an  institution  for  higher 
learning  in  that  frontier  land.  They  were 
men  on  very  small  salaries  and  the  money 
necessary  for  their  undertaking  must  be 
raised  almost  entirely  in  New  England  at 
the  cost  of  hard  labor  and  much  self-sacrifice. 
Each  of  them,  however,  regarded  the  found- 
ing of  the  college  as  an  essential  part  of  their 
common  work,  and  each  gave  generously  out 
of  his  scant  resources  for  its  support.  The 
first  dollar  contributed  was  laid  down  on  the 
table  by  one  of  these  ministers,  who  remarked 

1  Shelton,  "Heroes  of  the  Cross  in  America,"  1904,  p.  237. 

[87] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

humorously:  "Now  appoint  your  trustees 
to  take  care  of  that  dollar  for  Iowa  College." 
In  the  diary  of  another  of  these  missionary- 
educators  is  the  record  of  a  ride  which  he  took 
on  horseback  through  deep  mud  to  Davenport 
in  the  interest  of  the  College.  These  words 
from  that  account  are  significant : 

''If  we  had  the  requisite  funds,  we  might 
soon  make  this  institution  a  center  of  influ- 
ence. I  promise  to  send  up  ten  dollars  to- 
ward meeting  the  present  emergency." 

This  epitomizes  graphically  the  early  strug- 
gles and  the  unselfish  sacrifice  of  the  founders 
of  the  western  colleges.  Cherishing  de- 
votedly the  ideals  that  the  fathers  of  the 
Faith  had  set  for  them,  they  gave  freely  of 
money  and  of  personal  service.  The  horse- 
back ride  through  the  mud  and  the  pledge  of 
ten  dollars  out  of  a  meager  six-hundred-dol- 
lar salary  were  the  fine  evidences  of  dedica- 
tion to  an  ideal,  and  colleges  throughout  the 
West  today  bear  the  mark  of  such  devotion 
and  perpetuate  the  noble  spirit  of  their 
founders. 

Shortly  after  the  first  steps  toward  the 
organizing  of  the  new  college  had  been  taken, 
plans  for  its  establishment  were  presented  in 
a  report  submitted  to  the  meeting  of  the  Iowa 
Association  of  Congregational  Churches. 
Here  the  importance  of  the  proposed  institu- 
tion as  a  source  of  supply  for  the  ministry 
was  especially  emphasized,  and  a  fund  to  pro- 
[88] 


The   Faith   and   Education 

vide  scholarships  was  called  for.  On  the  spot 
the  ministers  and  delegates  raised  over  seven 
hundred  dollars. 

Similar  to  the  records  of  Oberlin  and  Iowa 
are  the  histories  of  all  the  other  colleges  which 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  has  founded  in  the  West. 
They  have  originated  in  the  dream  of  brave 
and  devoted  men,  the  great  majority  of  whom 
received  their  culture  and  ideals  in  the  older 
institutions  which  the  Congregationalists  had 
established  in  New  England.  There  is  an 
unbroken  succession  of  labor  and  sacrifice 
from  the  little  company  that  organized  the 
first  common  school  and  Harvard  College  in 
Massachusetts  to  the  ministers  and  laymen 
of  today.  To  the  realization  of  their  ideals 
men  of  the  Congregational  order  have  given 
their  resources  and  their  personal  service 
without  stint.  Large  sums  of  money  have 
been  contributed  by  the  older  and  wealthier 
East  to  carry  forward  enterprises  looking  to 
the  advancement  of  the  New  West ;  but  meas- 
ured by  the  standard  of  sacrifice  and  unselfish 
devotion  the  gifts  of  pioneers  and  home  mis- 
sionary pastors  bulk  even  larger.  For  these 
men  gave  generously  and  toiled  faithfully  in 
order  that  there  might  be  colleges  in  which  the 
Christian  emphasis  should  be  paramount,  and 
which  should  supply  the  Church  they  loved 
with  trained  and  efficient  laymen  and  minis- 
ters for  its  future  work.  Their  great  desire 
was  to  give  their  sons  and  daughters  an  edu- 
[89] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

cation,  not  as  an  end  in  itself,  but  in  order 
that  tlie  Kingdom  of  God  might  be  established 
on  earth. 

More  than  once  a  home  missionary  has  been 
enabled  to  make  an  essential  contribution  to 
the  system  of  public  education  in  process  of 
development  in  a  new  state ;  but  there  is  no 
finer  example  of  such  work  than  is  found  in 
the  services  rendered  by  Eev.  John  D.  Pierce 
in  Michigan.  Mr.  Pierce  was  a  native  of 
New  Hampshire  and  went  to  Michigan  with 
his  young  wife  in  1831,  when  he  began  work 
as  a  home  missionary  in  the  western  part  of 
the  State.  There  he  held  the  first  religious 
services  ever  conducted  by  a  Protestant 
minister  in  all  that  vast  region.  As  the 
young  preacher  went  from  house  to  house 
and  traveled  by  rough  trails  into  scattered 
settlements,  continually  meeting  with  hard- 
ships and  personal  danger,  he  was  constantly 
thinking  about  the  duty  of  the  State  to  pro- 
vide the  best  educational  resources  for  its 
young  people.  He  found  a  congenial  friend 
in  General  Isaac  E.  Crary  and  they  often 
talked  together  about  the  provisions  that 
ought  to  be  made  for  education  when  the 
Territory  should  become  a  State.  In  1835 
a  constitutional  convention  was  called  and  a 
state  constitution  was  agreed  upon.  This 
constitution  recognized  the  supreme  obliga- 
tion of  public  education  and  created  the  oflSce 
of  superintendent  of  public  instruction. 
[90] 


The    Faith    and   Education 

General  Crary  then  brouglit  tlie  name  of  Mr. 
Pierce  to  Governor  Mason  as  the  best  man 
to  be  appointed  to  the  new  office.  After  an 
interview,  the  Governor  appointed  Mr. 
Pierce  and  the  whole  matter  of  public  educa- 
tion was  placed  in  his  hands.  This  involved 
not  only  the  planning  of  the  new  school 
system  but  also  the  management  of  the 
school  lands,  of  which  there  were  a  million 
acres. 

Mr.  Pierce  went  to  work  immediately  on 
the  problem  of  devising  a  system  of  common 
school  and  university  education.  The  plan 
which  he  drew  up  was  reported  to  the  Legis- 
lature and  approved  by  it  in  1837.  The  sys- 
tem thus  outlined  by  the  home  missionary 
minister  has  remained  practically  un- 
changed, as  the  educational  plan  for  Michi- 
gan.^ It  provided  for  the  establishment  of  a 
free  primary  school  that  should  be  open  to 
every  child  in  the  state.  It  also  established 
a  state  university,  in  which  higher  education 
was  to  be  furnished  without  tuition  fees  to 
residents  of  the  state.  Mr.  Pierce  encoun- 
tered no  slight  opposition  to  this  part  of  his 
program  and  it  was  only  slowly  that  the  plan 
for  a  state  university  went  into  effect.  It 
was  finally  carried  out,  however,  on  the  gen- 
eral lines  that  Mr.  Pierce  proposed,  and  the 
foundations  of  the  great  University  of  Michi- 
gan were  thus  laid  very  largely  by  a  man  who 

1  Thomas  M.  Cooky,  "Michigan,"  1885,  pp.  318  ffg. 

[91], 


The    Pilgrim    Fait  h 

had  seen  the  educational  vision  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith. 

The  service  which  Eev.  John  D.  Pierce 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  public  education  in 
Michigan  is  perhaps  surpassed  by  the  simi- 
lar work  of  Rev.  George  H.  Atkinson  in 
Oregon.  Dr.  Atkinson  was  born  in  New- 
buryport,  Mass.,  in  1819,  and  was  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  College  and  at  Andover  Semi- 
nary. His  first  appointment  was  to  mission- 
ary work  among  the  Zulus,  but  he  was  pre- 
vented from  going  to  Africa  and  was  later 
transferred  to  an  assignment  in  Oregon  un- 
der the  American  Home  Missionary  Society. 
This  involved  no  less  hardship  than  the  jour- 
ney to  Africa,  for  he  and  his  young  wife  were 
obliged  to  sail  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands  in  order  to  reach  their  desti- 
nation. In  Honolulu  they  were  delayed  three 
months  waiting  for  a  vessel  bound  for  Ore- 
gon. Just  before  sailing  they  received  the 
shocking  news  that  their  fellow  missionaries, 
the  Whitmans,  had  been  murdered  near 
Walla  Walla.  Undaunted  by  hardship  and 
the  prospect  of  a  tragic  end  to  their  mission, 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Atkinson  completed  their  jour- 
ney and  reached  Oregon  in  June,  1848,  hav- 
ing been  on  the  way  since  October  of  the 
previous  year.  There  he  served  for  twenty- 
five  years  as  a  Congregational  pastor  and 
then  for  seventeen  years,  or  until  his  death, 
[92] 


The   Faith    and   E ducation 

in  1889,  as  general  missionary  and  mission- 
ary superintendent. 

When  Dr.  Atkinson  went  to  Oregon  he  took 
with  him  nearly  two  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  schoolbooks.  He  found  that  while  there 
were  in  the  Territory  a  few  schools  sup- 
ported by  private  subscription  there  were  no 
free  public  schools  and  that  there  was  no  plan 
or  appropriation  for  the  establishment  of 
any.  More  than  that,  there  were  strong  men 
who  were  opposed  to  the  inauguration  of  a 
public  school  system.  But  Dr.  Atkinson 
went  to  work  vigorously  at  the  task  of  en- 
listing support  for  a  plan  of  public  educa- 
tion and  with  the  backing  that  he  secured  was 
able  to  obtain  from  the  Legislature  of  1849 
its  sanction  for  a  common  school  system  in 
Oregon.  He  became  the  first  school  super- 
intendent of  Clackamas  County  and  served 
throughout  his  life  in  important  positions  on 
school  boards  and  educational  committees, 
carrying  on  all  this  work  without  in  the  least 
neglecting  his  duties  as  pastor  and  preacher. 
Dr.  Atkinson  was  the  prime  mover  in  the 
establishment  of  academies  and  a  college  for 
the  new  territory.  He  was  the  practical 
founder  of  Tualatin  Academy,  and  Pacific 
University  at  Forest  Grove  owes  more  to 
him  as  its  founder  and  friend  than  to  any 
other  single  individual.  He  is  a  shining  ex- 
ample of  those  leaders  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
[93] 


The   Pilgrim    F aith 

who  have  cast  themselves  into  every  move- 
ment that  makes  for  the  common  good  and 
have  conceived  their  ministry  as  including 
the  whole  higher  life  of  the  community  and 
nation.  Dr.  Atkinson's  motto  was:  "Ore- 
gon for  Christ,  and  for  Christ  through  all 
the  channels  of  public  and  private  charity." 
The  Congregationalists  have  always  been 
alert  to  the  need  of  the  Christian  academy  as 
well  as  the  Christian  college  and  they  have 
realized  that  the  purpose  of  education  is  not 
merely  to  inform  the  mind  but  also  to  create 
character.  The  impressionable  nature  of 
youth  makes  it  all  the  more  imperative  that 
the  direction  of  life  should  be  given  before 
the  college  course  is  begun.  Therefore  pre- 
paratory schools,  generally  called  academies, 
have  been  extensively  organized  and  sup- 
ported under  the  initiative  and  direction  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith.  In  New  England  the 
great  institutions  at  Andover,  Mass.,  and 
Exeter,  N.  H.,  bearing  the  name  '^Phillips 
Academy,"  are  conspicuous.  The  record  of 
such  schools  as  Kimball  Union  Academy  at 
Meriden,  N.  H.,  St.  Johnsbury  Academy  in 
Vermont,  and  others  is  brilliant.  They  have 
steadily  furnished  to  the  colleges  a  supply 
of  students  who  have  gone  into  places  of  dis- 
tinguished leadership  in  all  walks  of  life. 
In  the  West,  also,  the  Congregationalists  have 
maintained  academies,  sometimes  in  connec- 
tion with  colleges  and  sometimes  independ- 
[94] 


The   Faith   and   Education 

ently.  Kidder  in  Missouri,  Weeping  Water 
in  Nebraska,  Ward  in  South  Dakota  are  ex- 
amples of  these  Western  secondary  schools. 
What  the  future  may  bring  to  such  prepara- 
tory academies  it  is  not  possible  to  de- 
termine, for  the  growth  of  the  public  high 
school  supported  by  popular  taxation  may 
render  impossible,  even  if  it  does  not  make 
unnecessary,  the  Christian  academy  sup- 
ported by  private  benevolence.  It  would 
seem,  however,  that  the  unfailing  need  of 
Christian  leadership  at  the  hands  of  both 
ministers  and  laymen  would  make  the  work 
of  the  Christian  academy  a  permanent  part 
of  our  essential  educational  equipment. 

Elsewhere  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer 
to  the  work  of  Congregationalists  for  the 
education  of  the  undeveloped  races  and  in 
foreign  lands ;  it  is  fitting  that  we  should  re- 
fer at  this  point  to  the  remarkable  work  done 
at  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  for  the  negroes 
and  Indians  and  should  show  how  the  pri- 
mary inspiration  for  it  came  from  the  Pil- 
grim Faith.  The  unique  element  in  the 
Hampton  ideal  was  the  manual  labor  and 
training  that  were  made  an  essential  part 
of  the  entire  system  of  education.  This 
plan,  however,  was  not  new,  for  it  had  al- 
ready been  worked  out  successfully  at  Ober- 
lin  and  Mount  Holyoke.  With  this  fact 
Samuel  C.  Armstrong  was  familiar  when  he 
began  to  shape  the  plans  for  a  school  for 
[95] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

negroes  at  Hampton,  Va.  In  1867  he  wrote 
to  the  American  Missionary  Association  pro- 
posing that  a  permanent  educational  work 
for  negroes  should  be  begun  on  a  fine  estate, 
which  was  located  on  the  shore  of  Hampton 
river  and  was  then  in  the  market.  The  As- 
sociation responded  favorably,  the  land  was 
purchased,  and  Armstrong  became  the  head 
of  the  institution.  Thus  began  one  of  the 
most  famous  Schools  for  negroes  and  Indians 
in  America,  the  Hampton  Normal  and  Agri- 
cultural Institute.  In  time  it  seemed  best 
that  the  Institution  should  become  independ- 
ent of  the  American  Missionary  Association ; 
but  the  School  stands  as  one  of  the  gifts  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  the  higher  life  of 
America. 

Out  of  Hampton  has  grown  Tuskegee. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  its  founder  and  presi- 
dent, was  trained  at  Hampton  and  there  re- 
ceived the  ideals  of  Gen.  Armstrong,  He 
has  said  definitely  that  the  work  of  the  Tus- 
kegee Institute  is  simply  one  of  the  results 
of  the  pioneer  service  of  Hampton.^  The 
same  general  plan  of  industrial  education  has 
spread  not  only  throughout  the  South  but 
also  into  the  West  Indies  and  Africa.  Thus 
widely  has  grown  the  educational  influence 
of  the  Pilgrim  churches. 

A  few  words  only  can  be  devoted  to  the 
educational  work  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in 

1  Talbot,  "Samuel  Chapman  Armstrong,"  1904,  p.  209. 

[96] 


The   Faith   and   E due ation 

foreign  lands.  The  Church  that  educates  at 
home  is  the  patron  of  schools  and  colleges 
in  its  foreign  extension  also.  In  the  most 
recent  history  of  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  the 
agent  of  the  Congregational  Churches  for 
carrying  on  its  missionary  work  in  foreign 
lands,  there  is  given  a  list  of  the  educational 
and  philanthropic  institutions  that  have  been 
founded  or  inspired  by  the  Board  or  its  mis- 
sionaries.^ The  list  is  almost  startling  in 
its  proportions.  It  includes  nineteen  col- 
leges, fifteen  theological  seminaries,  five  in- 
dustrial schools,  scores  of  kindergartens,  and 
a  large  number  of  special  training  schools. 
Thus  around  the  world  has  gone  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Church  that  founded  Harvard 
College  in  the  colonial  days  and  is  still  edu- 
cating the  people. 

In  every  school  the  essential  factor  is  the 
personality  of  the  teacher.  The  Pilgrim 
Faith  has  been  preeminently  successful  in 
furnishing  eflBcient  and  inspiring  teachers  in 
all  departments  of  education.  The  list  of 
college  presidents,  university  professors, 
and  teachers  in  all  branches  of  learning  who 
have  come  from  the  Congregational  churches 
makes  a  muster  roll  of  which  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  is  proud.  We  can  speak  of  only  a  few 
of  these  educators  and  have  chosen  for  our 

1  strong,  "The  Story  of  the  American  Board,"  1910,  p. 
501. 

[97] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

mention  the  names  of  men  who  represent  the 
academy,  the  college,  and  the  state  univer- 
sity. 

It  always  has  been  customary  to  compare 
Thomas  Arnold  of  Eugby  and  Samuel  H. 
Taylor  of  Andover  and  the  parallel  is  not 
in  the  least  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Ameri- 
can educator.  For  Dr.  Taylor  was  one  of 
the  greatest  teachers  of  American  youth. 
He  was  born  in  Londonderry,  N.  H.,  in  1807, 
graduated  at  Dartmouth  in  1832,  studied 
theology  at  Andover  Seminary,  and  became 
principal  of  Phillips  Academy  in  1837. 
Here  he  reigned  as  master  for  thirty-four 
years,  until  his  death,  in  1871.  His  scholar- 
ship was  most  accurate.  As  a  teacher  he 
had  a  wonderful  power  of  creating  interest 
and  inspiring  enthusiasm  for  his  subjects. 
His  class-room  has  been  described  as  a  "tor- 
rent rushing  onward  to  the  sea.  Every 
mind  was  on  the  alert.  He  knew  how  to  in- 
cite and  embolden  (his  pupils)."  It  was 
chiefly  through  his  personal  influence,  how- 
ever, that  his  great  work  was  done.  He  had 
the  divine  gift  of  understanding,  leading,  and 
inspiring  boys.  He  possessed,  moreover,  a 
strong  and  unwavering  devotion  to  his  work. 
On  the  morning  of  his  death  he  was  urged 
to  remain  at  home  because  of  physical  weak- 
ness, but  refused  to  do  so,  saying,  "My  first 
duty  lies  with  the  school."  A  few  minutes 
later  he  fell  dead  among  the  boys  who  were 
[98] 


The   Faith    and   Education 

pressing  into  the  room  to  attend  Ms  Bible 
class. 

It  lias  become  almost  a  proverb  that  "a 
college  is  Mark  Hopkins  on  one  end  of  a  log 
and  a  boy  on  the  other."  President  James 
A.  Garfield  may  or  may  not  have  said  this; 
but  the  statement  presents  the  central  fact 
of  college  life.  President  Hopkins  of  Wil- 
liams College  has  been  described  as  the  per- 
fect example  of  ''the  college  president  as  the 
father,  teacher,  counselor,  and  guide."  He 
was  all  these  during  his  long  service  in  Wil- 
liams College.  He  became  a  tutor  there  in 
1825,  and  in  1836  assumed  the  presidency, 
which  he  held  until  his  death,  in  1887.  He 
was  repeatedly  called  to  other  places  but  he 
chose  to  remain  at  the  head  of  the  college 
that  he  loved.  Honors  of  every  kind  came 
to  him — he  served  with  especial  distinction 
as  president  of  the  American  Board — but  his 
preeminent  work  was  the  guidance  and  in- 
spiration of  college  men.  The  distinguished 
alumni  register  of  Williams  College  is  the 
abiding  witness  to  the  effectiveness  of  Presi- 
dent Hopkins'  life  work.  Men  like  Presi- 
dent Garfield  were  trained  by  him  and  gladly 
acknowledged  their  debt  for  the  inspiration 
they  had  received  from  his  devoted  per- 
sonality. He  was  a  worthy  representative 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

As  these  words  are  written.  President 
James  B.  Angell  is  living  quietly  at  Ann 
[99] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

Arbor,  Michigan,  close  by  the  university, 
the  first  outlines  of  which  were  sketched  by 
home  missionaries  and  in  the  growth  of 
which  Rev.  John  D.  Pierce  had  so  large  a 
hand.  Dr.  Angell  represents  the  contribution 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  the  up-building  of  the 
state  university.  He  has  been  president  of 
the  University  of  Vermont  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan  and  has  rendered  distin- 
guished service  on  a  diplomatic  mission  to 
China  and  as  Minister  to  Turkey.  Dr. 
Angell 's  interest  in  the  work  of  missions  al- 
ways has  been  keen  and  he  tells  in  his 
''Reminiscences"  how  it  was  reported  when 
he  was  nominated  as  minister  to  Turkey  that 
the  Sultan  would  object  on  the  ground  that 
the  newly-appointed  representative  ''be- 
longed to  the  denomination  of  Congregation- 
alists."  The  Sultan,  however,  had  merely 
confused  names,  thinking  that  a  "Congrega- 
tionalist"  was  one  who  belonged  to  the 
"Congregation  of  the  Jesuits."  When  he 
learned  of  the  mistake  the  objection  was 
withdrawn.^ 

Dr.  Angell 's  hand  has  been  laid  firmly 
upon  the  university  at  Ann  Arbor  and  he 
has  guided  its  affairs  with  eminent  success 
as  a  Christian  educator. 

One  of  the  great  contributions  which  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  has  made  to  education  is  in 

1  "The  Reminiscences  of  James  Burrill  Angell,"  1912,  p. 
189. 

[100] 


The   Faith    and   Education 

the  sphere  of  college  training  for  women. 
Here  Mary  Lyon  was  a  pioneer  and  heroic 
leader.  The  story  of  her  life  belongs  in  the 
record  of  brave  and  beautiful  souls  that  have 
made  the  world  better.  She  was  born  in 
Buckland,  Mass.,  in  1797,  and  began  to  teach 
at  an  early  age.  In  1837  she  founded  Mount 
Holyoke  Seminary  and  she  was  its  principal 
until  1849,  when  she  died.  It  is  estimated 
that  more  than  three  thousand  pupils  re- 
ceived instruction  from  Mary  Lyon,  and 
upon  nearly  every  one  she  set  the  mark  of 
her  ideals  and  of  her  devotion  to  the  service 
of  Christ.  There  was  a  flavor  of  noble 
womanliness  and  beautiful  sacrifice  about 
Mary  Lyon  that  her  pupils  never  could  for- 
get. They  went  out  from  the  presence  of 
her  personal  influence  to  engage  in  useful 
work  like  that  of  their  teacher  and  friend  and 
to  carry  abroad  her  spirit.  The  Mount 
Holyoke  idea  has  been  fruitful  in  the  entire 
educational  history  of  the  country. 

One  of  the  most  precious  results  of  Mary 
Lyon's  work  was  the  effect  of  her  example 
on  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons,  the  great  benefactor 
of  the  smaller  colleges.  Dr.  Pearsons  was 
living  in  Chicopee,  Mass.,  when  Miss  Lyon 
was  working  out  her  ideals  in  Mount  Hol- 
yoke Seminary.  At  that  time  she  was  a  fre- 
quent visitor  at  the  home  of  Deacon  Chapin, 
whose  daughter  Dr.  Pearsons  married.  Dr. 
Pearsons  was  familiar  also  with  the  quaint 
[  101  ] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

figure  of  '*Pa  Hawks,"  a  retired  minister  of 
unique  personality,  who  used  to  go  from 
town  to  town  gathering  anything  that  would 
help  the  girls  in  the  new  school.  "It  was 
the  sacrifice,  the  heroism,  and  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  founders  of  what  is  now  Mount 
Holyoke  College  that  deepened  and  made 
permanent  Dr.  Pearsons'  interest  in  the  edu- 
cation of  poor  boys  and  girls."  ^  The  fruit 
of  this  influence  was  millions  of  dollars 
which  Dr.  Pearsons  later  bestowed  with  lav- 
ish hand  upon  colleges. 

There  have  been  great  changes  in  the  edu- 
cational system  of  the  United  States.  The 
public  high  school,  and  the  university  main- 
tained by  the  state  from  the  public  funds, 
have  grown  rapidly  and  have  made  increas- 
ingly difficult  the  task  of  the  Christian 
academy  and  college,  which  must  depend 
upon  the  income  from  their  endowment  and 
the  gifts  of  generous  friends. 

But  in  spite  of  all  the  hardship  which  these 
Christian  schools  have  suffered,  they  have 
made  a  contribution  to  the  higher  life  of 
America  which  never  can  be  too  highly 
valued.  They  have  estimated  learning  at  its 
proper  worth  and  have  made  Christian  char- 
acter and  ideals  supremely  important. 
Great  laboratories  and  athletic  fields  are  a 
valuable  asset  to  an  educational  institution; 
but  the  insistence  upon  ideals,  character,  and 

1  Williams,  "The  Life  of  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons,"  1911,  p.  10. 

[102] 


The   Faith    and   Education 

service  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  are  still  more 
important.  Without  them  an  education  may 
be  void  of  meaning  or  value. 

Many  of  the  schools  and  colleges  equipped 
by  Congregational  ministers  have  passed 
from  denominational  control,  either  by  the 
churches  or  by  governing  boards  dominated 
by  Congregationalists.  But  this  does  not 
in  any  way  alter  the  value  of  the  work  done 
by  the  Pilgrim  Faith  for  higher  education 
in  the  United  States.  In  the  Congregational 
Year  Book  for  1912  is  a  list  of  forty  colleges 
which  can  be  fairly  grouped  together  because 
of  their  Congregational  origin  and  history. 
Here  we  find  the  names  of  the  great  institu- 
tions of  New  England  which  have  exerted  a 
profound  influence  upon  the  country;  here 
are  included  women's  colleges  like  Wellesley 
and  Smith.  Oberlin  and  Marietta  are  named 
in  the  list  as  well  as  a  group  of  nineteen  col- 
leges in  the  Middle  West.  Piedmont,  Eol- 
lins,  Tillotson,  Talladega,  Tougaloo,  and 
Straight  in  the  South,  and  Pomona,  Whit- 
man, and  Pacific  on  the  western  coast  are 
likewise  mentioned.  There  are  also  eight 
theological  seminaries  and  theological  de- 
partments in  colleges. 

This  long  and  notable  honor  roll  of  edu- 
cational institutions  established  and  main- 
tained by  representatives  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  shows  a  wonderful  result  of  self-sac- 
rifice and  toil  on  the  part  of  the  Congrega- 
[103] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

tionalists.  There  is  also  an  unbroken  line  of 
romance  and  heroism  in  the  history  of  these 
institutions.  Oberlin  stands  out  as  a  cham- 
pion of  freedom,  while  Northland  College  in 
Ashland,  Wisconsin,  is  proving  today  by  its 
service  that  the  former  faith  still  abides  in 
the  hearts  of  the  Congregationalists  who  be- 
lieve in  the  value  of  higher  education  for  all 
the  people. 


[104] 


VI 

THE  FAITH  ON  THE  FRONTIER 


VI 
THE  FAITH  ON  THE  FRONTIER 

THE  Pilgrim  Faith,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
been  filled  with  evangelistic  passion. 
Its  leaders  have  sought  to  carry  the  gospel 
into  the  new  settlements  as  the  frontier  has 
constantly  been  pushed  farther  westward  by 
the  relentless  land  hunger  of  the  people  and 
the  thrust  of  their  desire  to  improve  their 
economic  condition. 

We  have  sketched  already  the  general 
growth  of  the  Congregational  churches  as 
the  population  has  spread  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific.  But  there  were  certain  dis- 
tinct features  in  the  home  missionary  move- 
ment which  show  in  a  peculiar  and  graphic 
way  how  the  Faith  has  met  the  challenge  of 
hardship  in  following  the  frontier. 

From  the  beginning  intrepid  missionaries 
and  bands  of  Christian  workers  have  gone 
forward  with  the  retreating  frontier.  At 
first,  however,  there  were  no  regularly  con- 
stituted "missionary  societies,"  such  as  ex- 
ist today.  The  towns  that  were  settled  from 
eastern  Massachusetts  in  the  colonial  period 
[107] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

did  not  require  the  watchful  oversight  of  any 
such  organization,  for  they  were  composed 
in  general  of  church  members  who  organized 
schools  and  churches  as  they  established  new 
communities.  These  pioneers  were  for  the 
most  part  Congregationalists  and  churches 
of  their  order  grew  up  naturally  in  southern 
New  Hampshire  and  southern  Vermont; 
later,  however,  a  sense  of  responsibility  de- 
veloped among  the  original  congregations. 
In  1774  the  Connecticut  churches  discussed 
''the  state  of  the  settlements  now  forming 
to  the  Westward  and  Northwestward  of  us 
who  are  destitute  of  the  preached  gospel, 
many  of  whom  are  our  brethren,  emigrants 
from  this  colony."  The  "settlements"  re- 
ferred to  were  those  in  New  Hampshire, 
Vermont,  and  New  York.  As  a  result  of 
this  discussion  individual  churches  attempted 
to  send  their  own  pastors  to  the  new  regions 
for  short  periods,  but  the  Eevolution  came 
on  and  very  little  was  done.  When  the  War 
was  ended,  however,  the  congregations  took 
the  matter  up  in  a  larger  way.  The  general 
Association  of  the  churches  in  Connecticut 
commissioned  nine  pastors  from  the  strong 
churches  of  the  State  to  work,  each  for  a 
period  of  four  months,  in  the  new  settlements 
in  New  York  and  Vermont.  Each  man  was 
paid  four  dollars  and  a  half  a  week,  and  was 
allowed  four  dollars  more  for  the  supply  of 
his  pulpit.  In  this  way  the  new  communities 
[  108  ] 


The   Faith   on    the   Frontier 

were  served  for  a  short  time  every  year  by 
ministers  acting  as  missionaries.  Tliis  plan 
called  into  service  the  strongest  preachers 
of  Connecticut  and  was  a  real  test  of  their 
readiness  to  undertake  arduous  campaign- 
ing for  Christ.  They  met  the  hardships  of 
the  wilderness  cheerfully  and  did  their  work 
well.^  They  were  supported,  however,  either 
by  individual  congregations  or  by  the 
churches  of  the  State. 

In  1798  a  Missionary  Society  was  organ- 
ized by  the  State  Association  of  Connecticut. 
The  purpose  of  this  Society  and  of  a  similar 
one    organized   in    Massachusetts   the   next 
year  was   "to   Christianize  the  heathen  in 
North  America  and  to  promote  the  Christian 
religion  in   the   Settlements   of  the   United 
States. ' '     These  ' '  settlements ' '  were  outside 
the  boundaries  of  both  States,  and  the  work 
of  the  new  Societies,  therefore,  took  their 
representatives  first  into  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Vermont,  and  New  York,  then  on  into 
northern  and  southern  Ohio  and  finally  into 
the  great  States  which  were  carved  out  of  the 
Northwest  Territory.    In  the  religious  docu- 
ments and  discussions  of  those  early  days 
there  frequently  occurs  the  phrase,  ''the  wel- 
fare of  the  regions  beyond."    In  their  at- 
tempt to  promote  this  "welfare"  the  Con- 
gregational churches  of  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  sent  their  treasures  of  men  and 
money  without  reserve  to  follow  the  move- 
[109] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

ment  of  population  out  of  New  England  and 
into  the  Middle  West.  Between  1798  and 
1807  all  of  the  six  New  England  States  ex- 
cept Rhode  Island  organized  societies  to 
carry  on  such  missionary  work  in  the  new 
territories,  as  well  as  to  care  for  the  feebler 
churches  within  their  own  borders. 

We  have  noted  how  the  Presbyterian  and 
Congregational  churches  developed  their 
home  missionary  work  for  half  a  century  un- 
der the  "Plan  of  Union."  The  frontier  ac- 
tivities of  the  Congregationalists  from  1801 
to  1852,  therefore,  are  naturally  colored  by 
this  plan  under  which  the  two  denominations 
worked  jointly  in  the  territory  to  which  the 
settlers  were  going.  The  reports  of  the  mis- 
sionaries which  were  sent  back  to  the  home 
offices  and  printed  in  their  publications  are 
full  of  the  records  of  adventure  and  hard 
work.  For  these  men  shared  the  pioneer 
life  of  the  people  and  adapted  their  methods 
of  service  to  the  primitive  conditions  of 
the  frontier.  During  the  first  thirty  years 
of  its  work  the  Missionary  Society  of  Con- 
necticut employed  two  hundred  missionaries 
in  the  new  settlements.  There  were  no  rail- 
roads, and  when  the  preacher  did  not  jour- 
ney on  foot  from  settlement  to  settlement  he 
traveled  by  stage,  boat,  emigrant  wagon,  or 
saddle  horse.  The  early  home  missionaries 
in  western  New  York  and  northern  and 
southern  Ohio  were  isolated  more  com- 
[110] 


The   Faith    on    the   Frontier 

pletely  from  their  friends  and  kindred  in 
the  East  than  is  the  foreign  missionary  in 
these  days  of  cables  and  express  ocean 
steamers. 

The  opening  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  was  a  most  important  step  in  the  de- 
velopment of  a  sense  of  home-missionary 
responsibility  among  the  Congregational- 
ists. 

The  settlement  of  southern  Ohio  was  be- 
gun in  1788  when  a  boat  which  had  been  built 
for  the  voyage,  and  appropriately  named 
Mayflower,  landed  at  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent city  of  Marietta  with  a  little  band  of 
pioneers  from  the  East.  These  settlers  were 
patriotic  and  earnest  people  and  they  im- 
mediately reserved  land  for  a  minister's 
house  and  set  apart  two  townships  for  a  uni- 
versity. The  first  Congregational  church  in 
Ohio  was  organized  in  Marietta  in  1796. 

The  part  of  Ohio  lying  along  Lake  Erie 
was  known  as  the  Western  Reserve  of  Con- 
necticut. Here  worked  men  of  heroic  tem- 
per like  Rev.  David  Bacon,  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  those  "religious  and  literary  in- 
stitutions" which  the  trustees  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  Connecticut  claimed 
would  "sometime  be  reckoned  among  the 
brightest  ornaments  and  purest  honors  of 
the  parent  state."  ^     David  Bacon  was  the 

1  Clark,  "Leavening  the  Nation,"  1903,  p.  42. 

[Ill] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

first  missionary  of  this  Society,  going  forth 
in  1800  ''afoot  and  alone,  with  no  more  lug- 
gage than  he  could  carry  on  his  person. ' '  ^ 
His  life  was  filled  with  hard  and  heroic  serv- 
ice but  he  was  made  of  the  stuff  to  meet  it 
bravely  and  well. 

It  was  hardly  possible  that  state  mission- 
ary societies  could  carry  on  successfully  a 
national  work  such  as  was  now  opening  up 
before  the  churches.  These  organizations 
were  working  earnestly  but  disconnectedly 
and  sometimes  at  cross  purposes,  and  hence 
were  not  meeting  the  opportunity  efficiently. 
Moreover,  it  was  necessary  to  have  settled 
pastors  rather  than  traveling  missionaries 
in  order  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  congre- 
gations in  mission  territory.  This  in- 
creased the  demand  for  a  national  organiza- 
tion, and  in  May,  1826,  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society  was  formed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Presbyterian,  Eeformed, 
and  Congregational  churches.  These  de- 
nominations worked  together  for  a  time,  but 
gradually  the  other  partners  dropped  out 
and  the  organization  finally  became  the  Con- 
gregational Home  Missionary  Society.  The 
organization  was  timely,  for  many  of  the 
churches  that  had  been  formed  by  the  itiner- 
ant preachers  were  in  straits  and  could  be 
saved  only  by  resident  pastors,  whom  the 

1  Bacon,   "History   of   American    Christianity,"    1897,  p. 
247. 

[112] 


The   Faith    on    the   Frontier 

new  national  Society  was  now  able  to 
furnish. 

There  is  hardly  a  finer  example  of  the  swift 
movement  and  rich  rewards  of  this  frontier 
service  than  is  seen  in  the  early  work  in 
Illinois.  In  1833,  in  the  carpenter's  shop  of 
Fort  Dearborn,  Eev.  Jeremiah  Porter 
preached  the  first  sermon  ever  delivered  in 
Chicago.  He  lived  to  see  the  Columbian  Ex- 
position of  1893,  with  its  beauty  and  wealth, 
in  the  city  that  had  grown  from  the  little 
fort  and  the  clustered  cabins  to  which  he  had 
gone  sixty  years  before. 

To  Illinois  journeyed  the  famous  '' Illinois 
Band,"  each  member  of  which  was  commis- 
sioned by  the  American  Home  Missionary 
Society  at  the  usual  salary  of  four  hundred 
dollars  per  year.  There  were  twelve  men 
originally  in  the  group,  all  of  whom  had  been 
trained  in  the  best  schools  of  New  England. 
This  little  company  of  devoted  ministers  be- 
came the  model  for  other  Bands  going  into 
frontier  service.  Its  members  were  com- 
mitted to  a  plan  for  founding  a  college  as 
well  as  for  organizing  churches  and  preach- 
ing the  gospel  everywhere.  The  Band  was 
formed  at  Yale  in  1829,  and  eleven  of  its 
members  carried  out  their  purpose  of  going 
to  Illinois.  No  little  hardship  was  met  with 
on  the  journey.  To  go  from  New  Haven 
to  central  Illinois  involved  four  to  six  weeks 
of  travel  by  many  kinds  of  conveyance,  for 
[113] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

pioneer  conditions  prevailed  everywhere. 
One  of  the  most  fruitful  accomplishments  of 
the  Band  was  the  planting  of  Illinois  College 
at  Jacksonville.  Rev.  J.  M.  Sturtevant  was 
connected  with  this  Institution  for  fifty-six 
years  and  Abraham  Lincoln  regarded  its 
faculty  and  graduates  as  among  his  most 
valuable  counselors. 

The  work  of  following  the  frontier  in  Michi- 
gan and  Wisconsin  involved  hardship  and 
brought  to  light  the  heroism  of  the  pioneer 
missionaries.  This  was  the  country  of  the 
great  forests,  and  the  wealth  of  the  pine  at- 
tracted the  rough  lumbermen  and  gave  rise 
to  the  lumber  camp,  with  its  wild  life  and 
vexing  problems. 

In  Michigan  the  pioneers  came  into  con- 
tact with  English  interests,  and  there  was  no 
slight  stress  of  conflict  before  the  possibility 
of  statehood  came  within  reach.  Michigan 
displayed  a  sturdy  spirit  of  democracy  and 
an  unwavering  love  of  popular  liberty  which 
were  worthy  of  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims.  It 
was  a  Michigan  minister,  Rev.  L.  Smith  Ho- 
bart,  who  not  only  became  the  leader  of  the 
movement  which  brought  Congregationalism 
to  a  sense  of  its  mission  in  the  State,  but  also 
inspired  the  revival  of  denominational 
loyalty  which  began  about  1840.  The  rugged 
strength  and  the  grim  humor  of  these 
pioneers  are  typified  by  the  case  of  Rev. 
Harvey  Hyde,  who  delivered  an  address, 
[114] 


The   Faith    on   the   Frontier 

since  printed,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  the  Michigan  Association,  in 
which  he  speaks  thus  of  his  early  experi- 
ences: *'0f  personal  hairbreadth  escapes 
from  sudden  death  my  wife  kept  a  record 
until  she  got  to  fifteenthly  and  then  stopped. 
Twice  from  drowning,  twice  from  being  run 
over  by  a  loaded  wagon,  the  last  time  the 
hind  wheel  stopping  exactly  on  my  head,  but 
utterly  spoiling  my  best  silk  hat,  and  show- 
ing the  blessing  of  a  good  stout  skull.^ 

The  Territory  of  Wisconsin  was  formed  in 
1836  and  the  extension  of  home  missionary 
activities  into  that  region  is  due  in  large 
measure  to  a  remarkable  journey  which  was 
made  by  Rev.  Stephen  Peet,  a  Congrega- 
tional pastor,  who  traveled  on  horseback — 
riding  about  six  hundred  miles  from  Green 
Bay  through  Fond  du  Lac,  Madison,  and 
Beloit,  to  Milwaukee.  The  narrative  of  his 
adventurous  undertaking  was  printed  and 
was  widely  read.  This  served  to  quicken  in- 
terest in  the  growth  of  the  Territory  and  in 
its  religious  problems.  Mr.  Peet  found  vil- 
lages of  two  hundred  and  fifty  and  three  hun- 
dred inhabitants  which  have  now  become 
large,  prosperous  cities.  His  narrative 
brought  to  the  American  Home  Missionary 
Society — as  the  Congregational  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  was  called  at  that  time — 

1  "The  Congregational  Churches  of  Michigan  for  the  first 
Fifty  Years,   1842-1892."     Printed  for  the  Association. 

[  115  ] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

pledges  of  funds  for  the  support  of  missions 
in  the  places  that  he  had  mentioned.  Thus 
by  the  appeal  of  direct  personal  contact  and 
by  the  influence  of  the  written  word  Mr. 
Peet  aided  the  missionary  cause  both  spirit- 
ually and  materially.  And  he  was  only  one 
of  the  pioneers  who  impressed  their  lives 
profoundly  upon  the  growing  common- 
wealths of  the  interior. 

The  next  part  of  the  country  to  be  opened 
up  was  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  out  of  which 
have  been  formed  still  greater  states  than 
the  five  which  once  composed  the  Northwest 
Territory.  The  most  interesting  and  ro- 
mantic movement  in  this  region  was  the  jour- 
ney of  the  "Iowa  Band"  to  the  new  country 
in  1843.  Their  field  had  been  made  ready 
for  them  to  a  certain  extent  by  a  very  re- 
markable man,  Eev.  Asa  Turner,  a  born 
pioneer,  who  loved  the  Territory  of  Iowa 
with  an  affection  which  amounted  to  a  pas- 
sion. He  believed  in  the  future  of  the  coun- 
try and  was  unalterable  in  his  conviction  that 
Congregational  churches  were  necessary  in 
that  region.  But  little  of  it,  however,  was 
open  before  1843.  About  all  of  the  region 
that  was  known  was  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
about  forty  miles  wide  and  two  hundred 
miles  long  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
Mississippi. 

The  formation  of  the  Iowa  Band  is  full  of 
interest.  The  idea  in  which  it  had  its 
[116] 


The    Faith    on    the    Frontier 

genesis  first  arose  in  the  mind  of  Horace 
Hutchinson  then  a  senior  at  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  Mr.  Hutchinson  pro- 
posed that  a  group  of  men  should  go  into  the 
new  territory,  take  possession  of  a  large  dis- 
trict, and  work  together  as  missionaries. 
Very  little  was  said  about  the  suggestion,  but 
gradually  a  small  group  of  students  became 
mastered  by  the  idea  and  formed  the  habit 
of  meeting  late  at  night  in  an  alcove  of  the 
Seminary  library  for  prayer.  They  also 
studied  carefully  the  problem  of  the  most 
needy  fields  for  the  proposed  work,  consider- 
ing in  turn  Ohio,  Michigan,  Hlinois,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  Missouri.  This  matter  was  finally 
settled  for  them,  however,  by  a  character- 
istic letter  from  "Father"  Turner.  This 
brought  the  light  they  needed  on  the  situa- 
tion and  they  decided  to  go  together  to  the 
Territory  of  Iowa.  They  were  not  ordained 
before  leaving  New  England,  preferring  to 
wait  for  this  act  of  consecration  until  they 
should  be  ready  to  enter  upon  their  work  in 
the  fields  of  their  choice.  A  farewell  serv- 
ice for  them  was  held  in  the  South  Church  in 
Andover,  and  on  Tuesday,  October  3,  1843, 
they  gathered  at  Albany  ready  for  their 
journey.  On  the  next  day  they  took  the  train 
for  Buffalo,  where  they  spent  Sunday, 
October  8,  and  on  the  evening  of  Monday 
they  went  aboard  the  steamer  Missouri, 
upon  which  they  had  a  most  uncomfortable 
[117] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

journey  to  Chicago.  Until  Saturday  night, 
October  14,  when  they  landed  at  Milwaukee, 
they  were  seasick  and  storm-tossed.  The 
steamer  reached  Chicago  the  next  morning. 
There  the  Band  took  such  conveyance  as  they 
could  secure  for  the  West,  obtaining  trans- 
portation from  some  of  the  many  farmers 
who  had  come  to  the  city  with  produce  for 
the  autumn  market  and  who,  on  their  return, 
were  ready  to  take  passengers  ''for  a  con- 
sideration." It  was  on  Monday,  October 
16,  that  the  members  of  the  Band  left  Chi- 
cago by  different  routes,  for  the  long  over- 
land journey  to  the  Mississipi.  On  Tuesday 
evening,  October  24,  three  weeks  from  the 
time  when  they  had  assembled  in  Albany  to 
begin  their  travels,  they  gathered  again  in 
Denmark,  in  the  new  Territory  of  Iowa. 
They  found  abundant  welcome  in  the  homes 
of  the  pioneers  and  also  in  the  log  church 
and  school-house.  The  timbers  used  had 
been  hewn  by  hand.  The  shingles  on  the  roof 
were  hand-split.  The  seats  were  made  of 
logs  split  through  the  middle  and  placed 
flat  side  up.  The  building  was  the  center 
of  the  home-missionary  work  of  the  region 
and  the  progenitor  of  Grinnell  College  as 
well  as  serving  for  the  meetinghouse  of  the 
first  of  the  Congregational  churches  of  Iowa. 
The  ordination  in  1812  at  Salem  of  the  five 
missionaries  whom  the  American  Board  sent 
out  later  to  work  in  India  is  not  more  worthy 
[118] 


The   Faith    on    the   Frontier 

of  fame  than  was  tlie  ordination  of  these 
seven  members  of  the  Iowa  Band  in  this  rude 
little  structure  of  logs  on  Sunday,  November 
5,  1843.  The  time  will  come  when  Denmark, 
Iowa,  will  be  as  much  a  shrine  for  Congrega- 
tionalists  as  Salem  and  Plymouth  are  today. 
For,  simple  though  it  was,  that  little  cere- 
mony on  the  western  frontier  was  tremend- 
ously significant.  It  was  at  once  impressive, 
unique  and  momentous.  There  were  hardly 
enough  ordained  ministers  in  the  region  to 
perform  all  the  parts  in  the  service.  The 
charge  to  the  candidates  had  to  be  assigned 
to  a  man  who  was  not  ordained  and  one  of 
the  young  missionaries  objected  humorously 
to  ''being  charged  by  a  brother  who  was  not 
more  than  half  charged  himself." 

On  the  day  after  the  ordination  the  Band 
gathered  in  the  house  of  Father  Turner  and 
from  that  point  scattered  to  their  different 
fields  of  labor.  Outside  the  settlements  the 
only  thoroughfares  were  rude  roads  and 
bridle  paths  leading  across  dangerous  river 
fords.  Mails  came  in  only  once  a  month  and 
opportunities  for  fellowship  were  few  and 
infrequent.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  dis- 
tance, difficulty  of  travel,  and  general  hard- 
ship this  devoted  band  of  men  kept  up  their 
relationship  until  the  end.  In  the  entire  his- 
tory of  American  Christianity  there  is  prob- 
ably no  single  group  of  men  that  has  made  a 
larger  contribution  to  the  growth  of  the 
[119] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

Kingdom  of  God  than  this  company  of  mis- 
sionaries who  made  the  long  journey  west- 
ward in  1843. 

It  is  natural  to  inquire  why  there  has  been 
but  little  extension  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in 
the  South.  There  are  a  few  Congregational 
churches  below  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  but 
they  are  widely  scattered,  being  confined 
chiefly  to  the  larger  centers  of  population, 
and  the  fact  remains  that  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
has  not  taken  root  in  any  organized  form  in 
the  South.  There  are  many  reasons  that 
help  to  account  for  this.  The  principal  one 
is  found  in  the  historic  attitude  of  the  Faith 
toward  human  bondage.  The  Congrega- 
tional churches  have  stood  so  long  and  so 
strongly  for  freedom  that  they  came  into  col- 
lision early  with  the  institution  of  slavery 
and  involved  themselves  at  once  in  the 
sharpest  antagonism  with  the  leaders  of  the 
South.  Consequently  there  has  been  little 
extension  possible  among  the  Southern 
States.  This  situation  may  be  changed  in 
time;  but  at  present  the  North  remains  the 
great  field  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

Missouri  lies  on  the  border  between  the 
North  and  the  South  and  there  the  progress 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  was  slow  on  account  of 
distrust  in  the  minds  of  prominent  men. 
The  final  establishment  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  of  St.  Louis  was  due  to  the 
work  of  Rev.  Truman  M.  Post.  To  Dr.  Post 
[120] 


The   Faith    on   the   Frontier 

the  entire  denomination  is  deeply  indebted 
for  his  stalwart  championship  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  in  the  Southwest.  He  was  clear  and 
firm  in  his  conviction  that  the  form  of 
church  government  which  had  been  efficient 
in  New  England  would  ''work"  in  the  great 
West. 

The  story  of  the  early  days  in  Kansas  is 
full  of  the  heroic  elements  of  the  Apostolic 
Age.  The  slavery  question  became  the  burn- 
ing issue  there  and  Congregationalists  did 
not  hesitate  when  this  principle  was  involved 
in  any  course  of  action.  Their  anti-slavery 
sentiments  were  positive  and  militant.  In 
the  struggle  to  determine  whether  Kansas 
should  be  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  slave 
state  or  a  free  state  a  large  and  decisive  part 
was  borne  by  the  settlers — men  and  women 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith — who  had  gone  West 
from  New  England  to  turn  the  popular  vote 
in  the  interests  of  freedom.  In  1856  a  "Kan- 
sas Band"  was  organized  in  Andover  Semi- 
nary and  four  men  went  to  the  new  state  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in 
churches  and  schools.  One  of  them  later  be- 
came Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
and  the  founder  of  the  State  Normal  College 
at  Emporia.  Rev.  Richard  Cordley  has 
written  the  story  of  the  early  struggle  in 
"Pioneer  Days  in  Kansas,"  a  book  which 
rings  with  the  notes  of  heroism  and  daunt- 
less faith  in  the  midst  of  the  fight  for  free- 
[121] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

dom.  He  has  given  this  picture  of  the  con- 
ditions in  Lawrence: 

"The  first  sanctuary  of  Plymouth  Church, 
Lawrence,  was  the  'Old  Hay  Tent,'  consist- 
ing of  two  rows  of  poles  brought  together  at 
the  top,  and  the  sides  thatched  with  prairie 
hay.  The  room  was  also  used  as  a  general 
sleeping  apartment,  the  trunks,  bunks,  and 
boxes  of  the  lodgers  serving  for  seats  on 
Sunday.  The  minister  had  to  build  his  own 
house.  It  was  built  of  shakes.  These  were 
split  from  logs,  and  nailed  to  a  frame,  cover- 
ing sides  and  roof.  It  was  well  ventilated, 
but  not  blizzard-proof.  A  blanket  of  snow 
on  the  bed,  and  a  carpet  of  snow  on  the  floor 
were  no  unusual  thing  in  the  morning.  The 
inmates  wore  their  winter  wraps  while  cook- 
ing over  a  red-hot  stove,  and  water  often 
froze  on  their  clothing  while  their  faces 
tingled  with  the  heat  of  the  fire.  But  it  was 
'like  priest,  like  people.'  They  all  fared 
alike,  and  there  was  no  murmuring. ' '  ^ 

The  pioneer  minister  of  Nebraska  was 
Eev.  Eeuben  Gaylord.  In  1855  with  his 
family,  he  traversed  the  State  of  Iowa,  en- 
during the  winter  journey  with  the  greatest 
heroism  and  crossed  the  Missouri  river  on 
the  ice,  reaching  Omaha  on  Christmas  day. 
Mr.  Gaylord  has  been  called  "the  brave 
Christian  soldier  who  brought  Sunday  into 
Omaha  and  the  trans-Missouri  country." 

iCordley,  "Pioneer  Days  in  Kansas,"  1903,  p.  68. 

[122] 


The   Faith   on   the   Fro 71  tier 

If  it  were  possible  to  crowd  the  details  into 
the  limited  space  permitted  in  this  chapter, 
we  could  add  to  this  record  of  Christian 
achievement  in  the  Middle  West  items  con- 
cerning pioneer  work  in  Minnesota,  the  Da- 
kotas,  and  mighty  Montana  and  could  tell  of 
hard  conditions  bravely  met  in  Wyoming  and 
Idaho.  Colorado  and  Oklahoma  also  fur- 
nish abundant  material  to  illustrate  the 
heroism  and  romance  of  pioneer  work  in 
home-missionary  service. 

One  September  day  in  1836  a  canvas- 
covered  wagon  and  a  little  company  of  young 
men  and  women  arrived  at  Fort  W^alla  Walla 
in  the  Pacific  Northwest.  The  leaders  of  the 
band  were  Rev.  H.  H.  Spalding  and  Dr. 
Marcus  Whitman,  missionaries  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  to  this  great  region.  Twenty- 
five  miles  from  the  Fort  they  located  their 
station,  built  their  little  cabins  out  of  logs 
cut  from  the  surrounding  forest,  and  began 
their  work  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

The  story  of  Dr.  Whitman  belongs  in  the 
record  of  achievement  for  the  undeveloped 
races  and  will  be  told  in  some  detail  in  the 
next  chapter.  He  met  his  death  in  a  terri- 
ble massacre  but  his  example  remained  to  en- 
courage rather  than  to  deter  those  who  fol- 
lowed him. 

Among  these  were  Rev.  and  Mrs.  George 
H,  Atkinson,  who  came  to  Oregon  soon  after 
the  murder  of  Dr.  Whitman.  They  had 
[  123  ] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

made  a  journey  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  consuming  nine  months 
and  meeting  great  hardship  in  traveling  a 
circuitous  route  to  their  destination,  which 
may  now  be  reached  directly  from  the  East 
in  a  few  days  and  with  every  convenience  and 
comfort.  Dr.  Atkinson  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  Congregational  churches  in  Oregon, 
Washington  and  Idaho,  and  was  a  man 
of  wide  acquaintance  with  the  resources  and 
needs  of  the  country.  ''When  the  Boston 
Board  of  Trade  and  the  Xew  York  Chamber 
of  Commerce  would  know  of  the  prospects 
and  possibilities  of  the  far  Northwest,"  says 
Joseph  B.  Clark, ^  "they  passed  by  the  politi- 
cal orator  and  the  corporation  promoter,  and 
called  on  George  H.  Atkinson,  the  mission- 
ary, to  instruct  them.  .  .  .  His  address  be- 
fore the  Chamber  of  Commerce  is  a  history, 
a  prophecy,  and  an  oration  in  one." 

In  1890  the  Yale  Washington  Band  went 
out  to  the  Coast.  Their  influence  has  been 
deeply  impressed  upon  the  life  of  the 
churches. 

California  is  an  empire  in  itself  and  within 
its  vast  domain  pioneer  missionaries  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  have  built  well. 

Today  the  last  frontier  has  been  reached. 
The  true  Xorthwest  now  is  in  Alaska,  and 
here  the  Home  Missionary  Society  began  its 
work  at  Douglass  in  1899.     The  only  room 

1  Clark.  '-Leavening  the  Nation,"  1903,  p.  203. 

[124] 


The    Faith    on    the    Frontier 

available  for  the  use  of  the  Christian  workers 
was  a  dance  hall,  and  there,  on  the  table 
where  irreverent  miners  had  been  accustomed 
to  gamble,  the  missionaries  broke  their  sac- 
ramental bread  in  remembrance  of  Christ. 
The  work  has  been  pushed  also  in  other  parts 
of  the  Territory,  where  churches  have  been 
built  and  schools  for  the  Eskimos  and 
Indians  established.  And,  today,  on  the 
westernmost  point  of  land  over  which  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  floats  stands  a  school, 
established  by  the  American  Missionary  As- 
sociation, to  which  go  Eskimos  of  that  bleak 
and  desolate  coast,  eager  to  learn  from  the 
men  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  the  message  of 
light  and  liberty  which  its  founders  brought 
to  the  opposite  shores  of  the  Continent  almost 
three  hundred  years  ago. 


[125] 


VII 

THE  FAITH  AND  THE  UNDEVELOPED 
EACES 


VII 

THE  FAITH  AND  THE  UNDEVELOPED 
EACES 

WE  have  noted  already  that  the  mission- 
ary motive  lay  behind  the  movement 
that  brought  the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  Plymouth. 
And  since  then  the  altruistic  element  never 
has  been  lacking,  for,  from  the  earliest  days 
of  PljTuouth  Colony  until  the  present  mo- 
ment, a  practically  unbroken  service  has  been 
rendered  by  the  Congregationalists  to  the 
undeveloped  races  and  especially  to  the 
Indian  and  the  Negro.  The  story  of  this 
service  involves  some  of  the  bravest  enter- 
prises of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  the  United 
States. 

The  first  name  which  we  naturally  connect 
with  the  endeavor  to  bring  Christian  knowl- 
edge and  civilization  to  the  Indians  is  that 
of  John  Eliot,  commonly  known  as  the 
''Apostle,"  who  worked  among  the  Indians 
of  North  America. 

Eliot  was  a  graduate  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge,  and  became  a  teacher  in 
a  school  in  England  kept  by  Thomas  Hooker, 
a  minister  who  had  been  forbidden  to  preach 
[129] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

because  of  his  Puritan  ideas.  The  influence 
of  Hooker  upon  Eliot  made  the  young  in- 
structor an  earnest  Christian.  In  1631  he 
came  to  Boston,  where  he  was  soon  chosen  as 
the  *' teacher,"  or  practically  associate  min- 
ister, of  the  Eoxbury  Church.  In  this  posi- 
tion he  remained  for  fifty-seven  years. 

The  difficulty  attending  the  beginning  of 
missionary  work  among  the  Indians  was 
great.  They  were  close  at  hand,  to  be  sure ; 
but  they  were  separated  from  the  colonists 
by  the  barriers  of  language  and  custom.  It 
could  not  be  expected  that  they  would  re- 
spond to  the  appeal  of  the  gospel  unless  it 
should  come  to  them  from  men  who  had  been 
among  them  and  had  shared  their  daily  ex- 
periences. To  have  learned  their  life  would 
have  involved,  as  Professor  Williston 
Walker  says,  "days  and  nights  in  filthy  wig- 
wams, loathsome  fare,  and  deprivations  not 
merely  of  the  comforts  but  of  the  decencies 
of  life."  ^  The  only  point  of  contact  of  the 
two  races  was  in  trade,  and  here  there  was 
constant  likelihood  of  incurring  mutual  suspi- 
cion instead  of  cultivating  common  friend- 
ships. 

Eoger  Williams  had  begun  missionary 
work  for  the  Indians,  but  his  labor  had  not 
been  systematic  and  had  brought  little  in 
the    way    of   permanent    result.     But   when 

1  Walker,  "Ten  New  England  Leaders,"  1901,  p.  152. 

[130] 


-^ 

< 

A 

oi 

> 

ci 

y, 

< 

ti 

W 

m 

> 
< 

U^ 

J 

c 

S 

Z 

Q 

-i 

D 

si 

'rO. 

O 

The    Undeveloped   Races 

John  Eliot  felt  a  "compassion  for  their  poor 
souls  and  a  desire  to  teach  them  to  know 
Christ  and  to  bring  them  into  his  Kingdom, ' ' 
he  went  at  the  matter  in  a  very  practical  way. 
He  took  a  young  Indian  into  his  family  and 
under  his  tutelage  began  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage of  the  tribes  in  the  neighborhood.  He 
mastered  their  tongue  well  enough  to  speak 
it,  and  in  1646,  accompanied  by  three  friends, 
he  preached  to  ''many  Indians'^  at  the  wig- 
wam of  Waaubon,  the  chief,  in  what  is  now 
the  city  of  Newton,  Massachusetts.  After 
the  sermon  the  Indians  asked  him  questions 
which  showed  that  they  had  understood  his 
message.  There  was  a  quick  response  to  his 
appeal  and  many  of  his  hearers  soon  began 
a  life  of  prayer  and  moral  conduct  according 
to  Christian  principles. 

Eliot  undertook,  also,  to  provide  these  In- 
dian converts  with  the  means  of  education 
and  with  the  general  advantages  of  Christian 
civilization.  The  legislature  took  up  this 
matter  and  became,  to  quote  Professor  Wil- 
liston  Walker  again,  "the  first  missionary 
society  in  the  English  colonies.'*  This  mis- 
sionary effort  in  America  awakened  atten- 
tion and  created  permanent  interest  in  Eng- 
land, and  out  of  it  grew  the  first  English 
foreign  missionary  society,  which  bore  the 
somewhat  cumbersome  name,  "The  Presi- 
dent and  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
[131] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

Gospel  in  New  England. '^  This  organiza- 
tion was  incorporated  in  1649. 

The  Christian  Indians  were  first  success- 
fully gathered  in  a  village  of  their  own  at 
Natick  and  a  Congregational  Church  was  es- 
tablished there  in  1660. 

John  Eliot  did  what  many  another  mis- 
sionary has  accomplished, — he  reduced  to 
writing  the  difficult  language  of  the  people  to 
whom  he  preached.  By  1663  he  had  trans- 
lated the  entire  Bible  into  the  tongue  of  the 
Massachusetts  tribes.  An  extensive  Chris- 
tian literature  in  the  Indian  language  fol- 
lowed. 

John  Eliot  was  a  devoted  missionary,  a 
painstaking  linguist,  a  tireless  worker.  His 
spirit  is  well  summed  up  in  his  familiar 
watchword,  ''Prayers  and  pains  through 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus  will  do  anything." 

Another  successful  piece  of  missionary 
work  for  the  Indians  was  that  carried  on  by 
the  Mayhews  of  Martha's  Vineyard.  This 
was  a  unique  service.  Beginning  with  the 
first  Thomas  Mayhew,  there  were  five  gen- 
erations of  Mayhews  who  were  missionaries 
to  the  Indians,  establishing  the  longest  line 
of  unbroken  missionary  labor  by  one  family 
of  which  there  is  record. 

The  Christian  converts  among  the  various 

tribes  became  known  as  ''Praying  Indians," 

and  in  Massachusetts  and  the  islands  around 

Martha's  Vineyard  they  numbered  at  least 

[132] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

4,000.  Wlien  the  inevitable  wars  came  on, 
however,  the  missions  were  necessarily  crip- 
pled. The  Praying  Indians  met  the  test 
nobly;  but  their  race  was  doomed  and  they 
slowly  faded  from  New  England.  Yet  the 
story  of  what  was  done  for  their  religious 
welfare  is  a  record  of  brave,  self-sacrificing, 
and — so  far  as  it  was  possible — of  successful 
effort. 

More  because  of  its  influence  upon  the  mis- 
sionary motive  than  for  its  intrinsic  success 
the  work  of  David  Brainerd  and  Jonathan 
Edwards  is  important.  Brainerd  was  a  sen- 
sitive devoted  missionary  who  died  in  the 
home  of  Edwards  at  the  early  age  of  twenty- 
nine.  The  story  of  his  life  may  be  briefly 
told.  He  was  deeply  moved  by  the  Great 
Awakening;  he  worked  with  intrepid  devo- 
tion for  the  Indians  in  New  York  and  New 
Jersey;  he  contracted  consumption  and  died, 
leaving  his  diaries  and  papers  with  Edwards. 
When  these  records  were  published  they 
created  great  interest,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  missionary  work  for  the  Indians. 
This  may  have  influenced  Edwards  to  suc- 
ceed John  Sargeant  in  carrying  the  gospel 
message  to  the  Stockbridge  Indians,  whose 
preacher  he  became  when  he  removed  from 
Northampton.  One  result  of  his  residence 
at  Stockbridge  was  the  writing  of  his  great- 
est work  in  theology,  the  treatise  on  ''The 
Freedom  of  the  Will,"  but  it  will  always  be 
[133] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

gratifying  to  recall  that  the  loftiest  mind  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  was  ready  to  preach  to 
the  Indians  and  to  live  among  them  as  a 
faithful  missionary  worker.  Brainerd  and 
Edwards — the  mystic  and  the  theologian — 
each  suffered  and  labored  for  the  conversion 
and  civilization  of  the  natives  of  America. 

The  American  Board  had  cherished  from 
the  first  the  idea  of  a  mission  to  the  Indians, 
as  it  specifically  stated  in  its  address  to  the 
Christian  public  in  1811. 

The  first  mission  opened  by  the  Board  was 
established  in  1817  among  the  Cherokees  in 
southern  Tennessee.  Rev.  Cyrus  Kings- 
bury was  the  missionary  in  charge  of  the 
station,  which  was  appropriately  named 
"Brainerd,"  for  David  Brainerd.  Its  pur- 
pose was  not  only  to  influence  the  Indians  to 
accept  the  Christian  faith,  but  also  to  teach 
them  agriculture  and  useful  arts  and  to  bring 
them  into  a  thoroughly  civilized  condition. 
The  mission  was  paid  a  distinguished  honor 
by  President  Monroe,  who  on  one  occasion 
visited  it  in  person,  entirely  unexpectedly, 
and  commended  its  work  very  highly. 

In  1818  the  next  mission  was  founded.  It 
was  located  among  the  Choctaws,  in  the  State 
of  Mississippi,  and  was  named  ''Eliot,"  per- 
petuating the  memory  of  the  earliest  service 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  behalf  of  the  Indians. 
In  Mississippi  there  was  gross  immorality 
to  be  fought  and  the  task  of  the  missionaries 
[134] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

was  a  hard  one ;  but  the  response  on  the  part 
of  the  Indians  was  encouraging  both  to 
schools  and  to  churches. 

Work  among  the  primitive  peoples  of  the 
country  advanced  steadily  to  a  place  of  un- 
deniable and  obvious  importance.  In  1820 
half  of  the  missionaries  of  the  American 
Board  were  engaged  in  the  task  of  Christian- 
izing the  North  American  Indians  and  nearly 
half  of  its  expenditures  were  used  in  for- 
warding this  cause.  Other  societies,  more- 
over, transferred  their  work  to  the  Congre- 
gational organization. 

The  disaster  which  ended  this  successful 
work,  especially  among  the  Choctaws,  the 
Cherokees,  and  the  Chickasaws,  was  met  in 
the  government's  decision  to  move  the  tribes 
to  other  reservations.  As  a  result  of  this 
policy  the  Board  suffered  the  total  loss  of  its 
buildings  and  equipment  at  the  stations  and 
also  was  compelled  to  abandon  the  field  of 
its  most  prosperous  labor.  The  behavior  of 
the  Christian  Indians  during  these  terrible 
times  was  noble ;  they  had  to  meet  such  a  test 
as  the  "Praying  Indians"  of  the  earlier  days 
had  faced  and  they  met  it  well. 

After  the  breaking  up  of  its  work  in  the 
South,  the  American  Board  turned  its  atten- 
tion to  the  Northwest.  Here,  however,  the 
obstacles  were  too  great  to  permit  so  success- 
ful results  as  had  been  obtained  in  the  former 
field.  The  Indians  were  kept  restless  and 
[  135  ] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

dissatisfied;  the  treatment  that  they  had  re- 
ceived tended  to  make  them  indifferent,  if 
not  openly  hostile,  to  the  message  of  the  mis- 
sionary. Christian  appeal  was  well-nigh 
vain,  and  gradually  the  missions  declined  or 
were  surrendered. 

The  most  significant  work  of  the  Board  in 
this  region  was  among  the  Nez  Perces  and 
the  Sioux.  There  is  no  finer  illustration  of 
the  heroism  and  worth  of  our  Indian  mis- 
sions than  is  found  in  the  story  of  our  mis- 
sions in  that  part  of  the  great  Oregon  country 
which  now  forms  the  state  of  Washington. 
The  isolation  of  this  vast  territory  prac- 
tically cut  off  the  workers  who  served  there 
from  all  contact  with  the  East.  The  ordi- 
nary method  of  communication  was  by  sailing 
vessels  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  thence 
around  Cape  Horn  by  the  same  means.  The 
difficulties  and  dangers  of  mountain  and 
desert  made  the  direct  route  across  the  con- 
tinent more  hazardous  than  this  long  and 
roundabout  course  by  water. 

"When  Lewis  and  Clark  met  the  Nez  Perces 
Indians  in  1804-06  in  the  far  Northwest  the 
Indians  expressed  their  desire  to  have  re- 
ligious teachers  sent  to  them,  and  the  explor- 
ers promised  that  this  should  be  done. 
Years  passed  by,  however,  and  no  mission- 
aries went  to  the  Coast. 

In  1832  there  came  to  St.  Louis  by  the 
Oregon  trail  four  Indians  of  the  Flathead 
[136] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

tribe,  dressed  in  their  native  costume.  They 
had  made  a  long,  difficult  journey,  but  for 
some  time  were  unwilling  to  tell  why  they 
had  come.  Finally  their  reticence  was 
broken  and  it  became  apparent  that  their 
mission  was  to  find  out  about  "The  White 
Man's  Book  of  Life"  and  to  ask  that  teachers 
be  sent  to  them.  Two  of  the  Indians  died  in 
St.  Louis,  and  later  the  other  two  prepared 
to  return  home.  Before  their  departure 
Gen.  Clarke,  commander  of  the  military  post 
at  St.  Louis,  gave  them  a  banquet  and  at  this 
time  one  of  the  Indians  made  a  speech  in  his 
native  tongue.  This  address  was  translated 
and  published  in  New  England,  accompanied 
by  an  appeal  for  volunteers  to  cross  the 
Eocky  Mountains  and  answer  the  call  of  the 
Indians.  The  speech  may  be  colored  some- 
what in  translation,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  its  substantial  accuracy  and  its  pathos 
created  a  profound  impression.  It  was  as 
follows : 

"I  come  to  you  over  the  trail  of  many 
moons  from  the  setting  sun.  You  were  the 
friends  of  my  fathers,  who  have  all  gone  the 
long  way.  I  came  with  an  eye  partly  open 
for  my  people,  who  sit  in  darkness.  I  go 
back  with  both  eyes  closed.  How  can  I  go 
back  blind,  to  my  blind  people?  I  made  my 
way  to  you  with  strong  arms  through  many 
enemies  and  strange  lands  that  I  might  carry 
back  much  to  them.  I  go  back  with  both 
[137] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

arms  broken  and  empty.  Two  fathers  came 
with  us,  they  were  the  braves  of  many  win- 
ters and  wars.  We  leave  them  asleep  here 
by  your  great  water  and  wigwams.  They 
were  tired  in  many  moons  and  their  moc- 
casins wore  out. 

"My  people  sent  me  to  get  the  'White 
Man's  Book  of  Heaven.'  You  took  me  to 
where  you  allow  your  women  to  dance  as  we 
do  not  ours,  and  the  book  was  not  there. 
You  took  me  to  where  they  worship  the  Great 
Spirit  with  candles  and  the  book  was  not 
there.  You  showed  me  images  of  the  good 
spirits  and  the  pictures  of  the  good  land  be- 
yond, but  the  book  was  not  among  them  to 
tell  us  the  way.  I  am  going  back  the  long 
and  sad  trail  to  my  people  in  the  dark  land. 
You  make  my  feet  heavy  with  gifts  and  my 
moccasins  will  grow  old  in  carrying  them,  yet 
the  book  is  not  among  them.  When  I  tell 
my  poor  blind  people  after  one  more  snow, 
in  the  big  council,  that  I  did  not  bring  the 
book,  no  word  will  be  spoken  by  our  old  men 
or  by  our  young  braves.  One  by  one  they 
will  rise  up  and  go  out  in  silence.  My  people 
will  die  in  darkness,  and  they  will  go  a  long 
path  to  other  hunting  grounds.  No  white 
man  will  go  with  them,  and  no  White  Man's 
Book  to  make  the  way  plain.  I  have  no  more 
words."  ^ 

1  Nixon,  "How  Marcus  Whitman  saved  Oregon,"  1896,  p. 
53. 

[138] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

In  1834-35  Eev.  Samuel  Parker  and  Dr. 
Marcus  Whitman  went  overland  as  pathfind- 
ers in  the  far  Northwest  for  the  American 
Board.  Coming  upon  a  band  of  Nez  Perces 
near  Walla  Walla,  they  decided  to  locate  one 
mission  in  that  vicinity  under  Dr.  Whitman, 
while  another  was  placed  a  little  farther 
north  and  was  put  in  charge  of  Rev.  H.  H. 
Spalding.  At  first  and  for  a  considerable 
time  the  work  prospered.  Then  the  mood 
of  the  Indians  changed  and  it  seemed  likely 
that  the  enterprise  would  have  to  be  curtailed 
or  abandoned.  Meantime  the  political  des- 
tiny of  the  Oregon  Country  was  hanging  in 
the  balance.  If  the  vast  area  should  be  set- 
tled by  Americans  it  would  ultimately  become 
a  part  of  the  United  States ;  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  new  lands  should  be  occupied  by 
the  English,  it  seemed  inevitable  that  the  rich 
region  would  finally  be  subject  to  the  Crown. 
Whitman  knew  the  situation  thoroughly  and 
saw  that  the  facts  should  be  understood  in 
the  East;  therefore,  in  1842,  he  made  his 
famous  "journey  to  the  United  States"  as  it 
was  called  in  the  vote  of  the  mission  that 
sanctioned  his  daring  venture.  This  long 
trip  overland  became  famous,  first  as  an  un- 
disputed act  of  patriotic  heroism,  and  later 
as  a  subject  of  fierce  controversy.  Concern- 
ing the  hardship  and  peril  of  Whitman's 
*'ride  through  savage  lands"  there  can  be 
no  question.  It  was  a  journey  in  bitter  win- 
[139] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

ter  weather,  undertaken  and  accomplished 
with  dauntless  courage.  The  truth  concern- 
ing the  motive  and  the  result  of  his  brave 
venture,  as  it  affected  the  final  saving  of  the 
Oregon  Country  to  the  United  States,  lies 
somewhere  between  the  rather  extravagant 
claim  that  Whitman  "saved  Oregon"  and 
the  complete  denial  of  any  such  motive  or  in- 
fluence by  those  who  have  attacked  the  whole 
story  as  a  myth.  The  deep  desire  of  Whit- 
man that  Oregon  Territory  could  be  settled 
so  that  it  might  not  be  incorporated  into  the 
British  possessions  is  undisputed:  even  the 
members  of  the  mission  were  inclined  to  cen- 
sure him  for  his  absorbing  interest  in  poli- 
tics. He  did  visit  Washington  and  interview 
President  Tyler  concerning  the  great  Terri- 
tory, the  whole  future  of  which  was  hanging 
in  the  balance.  He  did  return  with  an  emi- 
grant company, — which  he  perhaps  did  not 
organize, — of  which  he  certainly  was  the 
counselor  and  companion.  No  other  man 
sacrificed  more  for  his  distinct  missionary 
work  and  for  a  great  section  of  the  country 
than  did  Marcus  Whitman. 

The  end  of  his  life  was  as  courageous  as 
his  ride  to  the  East.  In  1847  the  storm  of 
Indian  hatred  broke  suddenly  upon  the  mis- 
sionaries. There  is  no  doubt  that  the  plot 
to  destroy  the  mission  was  inspired  from  a 
source  outside  the  Indians  themselves.  But 
it  was  the  Indians  who  executed  it,  and  that 
[140] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

with  savage  brutality.  Both  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Whitman  were  killed  but  their  children  were 
spared  and  Mr.  Spalding  escaped.  The  mis- 
sion was  broken  up  and  the  American  Board 
never  opened  it  again. 

The  gradual  cessation  of  missionary  activ- 
ity among  the  Indians  was  due  to  a  multitude 
of  causes.  Chief  among  these  were  the  grad- 
ual dying  out  of  the  Indians  themselves,  the 
transfer  of  the  work  to  other  organizations, 
and,  especially,  the  unyielding  anti-slavery 
principles  of  the  Congregationalists,  which 
prevented  activity  in  the  South.  Yet  the 
work  had  been  extensive  in  its  operations  and 
rewarding  in  its  results.  The  Cherokee  mis- 
sion alone  had  cost  $350,000  and  had  called 
113  workers  into  its  service.  The  Choctaw 
mission  had  registered  2,700  conversions. 
No  statistics,  however,  can  adequately  report 
the  contribution  which  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
made  to  the  life  of  America  through  its  mis- 
sionary work  among  the  Indians. 

The  mission  to  the  Dakotas  is  the  abiding 
enterprise  of  the  Congregational  churches 
among  the  natives  of  America.  Their  Chris- 
tian workers  followed  the  Sioux  tribes  as 
they  were  moved  from  Minnesota  into  Da- 
kota and  with  them  met  the  hardships  of 
dreary  winter  journeys.  The  work  was  in- 
terrupted in  1862  by  the  terrible  wars  of  the 
Sioux  with  the  white  men,  which  compelled 
the  Christian  Indians  and  the  missionaries 
[  141  ] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

to  flee  for  their  lives  to  St.  Paul.  The  gov- 
ernment put  down  the  rebellion  with  drastic 
severity.  After  a  large  number  of  hostiles 
had  been  executed,  about  400  were  impris- 
oned at  Mankato  while  1,500  were  confined  at 
Fort  Snelling,  near  St.  Paul.  Here  the  mis- 
sionaries found  an  unique  and  challenging 
opportunity  and  Mr.  Riggs  threw  himself 
into  the  work  of  teaching  and  evangelizing 
the  proud  but  now  humbled  Sioux.  A  won- 
derful revival  followed.  Camp  and  prison 
became  places  of  preaching.  Over  200  In- 
dians were  baptized  in  one  day  at  Mankato, 
and  at  Fort  Snelling  the  results  were  equally 
remarkable.  In  the  spring  of  1863  the  Man- 
kato prisoners  were  moved  to  Davenport, 
Iowa,  but  as  the  boat  which  conveyed  them 
passed  down  the  Mississippi  river  they  were 
heard  singing  Christian  hymns.  The  con- 
verts at  Fort  Snelling  also,  kept  their  faith 
steadfastly,  even  under  most  trying  condi- 
tions. They  observed  the  Lord's  Supper  as 
a  church  while  in  prison,  and  when  they  were 
finally  released  and  restored  to  a  permanent 
location  they  named  their  organization  "Pil- 
grim Church,"  because  they  had  shared  the 
exile  and  the  suffering  which  the  men  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  have  so  often  endured. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  farther  the  story 
of   the   engagement   of   the    Congregational 
churches  with  the  task  of  missions  to  the  In- 
dians.   In    1883    the    American   Board    en- 
[142] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

trusted  this  work  to  the  American  Mission- 
ary Association,  which  has  made  it  a  part  of 
its  service  to  the  undeveloped  races. 

The  American  Missionary  Association  was 
organized  in  1846  by  men  who  were  intensely 
anti-slavery  in  their  convictions  and  who  felt 
that  the  officers  and  members  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions  were  either  too  lukewarm  in  the 
matter  of  freedom  or  else  were  inclined  to 
sympathize  with  the  slave  owners.  They 
therefore  perfected  this  new  organization  to 
conduct  missionary  work  more  nearly  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  ideas.  Its  purpose  was 
to  preach  the  gospel,  assist  feeble  churches 
and  sustain  general  missionary  operations 
among  the  free  colored  population,  to  extend 
missions  among  the  Indians  and  fugitive 
slaves  in  Canada,  and  finally  to  prosecute 
Christian  work  in  western  India,  in  Africa, 
and  among  emancipated  slaves  in  Jamaica. 

We  are  concerned  here  simply  with  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  Association  among  colored 
people.  Its  missionaries  early  began  the 
work  out  of  which  was  later  developed  Berea 
College  in  Kentucky,  so  widely  known  for  its 
work  in  education;  but  the  supreme  call  for 
service  was  not  heard  until  after  the  signing 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  January 
1,  1863.  Following  that  date  the  Associa- 
tion's work  for  the  American  Negro,  which 
had  been  heretofore  confined  to  those  who 
[  143  ] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

had  already  obtained  their  freedom  or  were 
refugees,  could  be  extended  to  all  who  could 
in  any  way  be  reached  by  the  workers. 

Immediately  schools  were  opened,  espe- 
cially in  Virginia.  Then  the  missionaries  and 
teachers  began  to  follow  the  track  of  the 
Northern  armies,  holding  meetings  and  set- 
ting up  schools  in  barracks  and  warerooms 
that  had  been  used  by  the  armies  and  aban- 
doned as  the  soldiers  had  moved  to  new  head- 
quarters. The  teaching  was  necessarily 
most  elementary  and  the  missionary  work 
consisted  of  the  plainest  and  simplest  of  gos- 
pel preaching. 

The  general  principles  of  educational  work 
which  the  Association  laid  down  at  the  be- 
ginning were  statesmanlike  and  profound. 
Its  members  believed,  in  the  first  place,  that 
every  ennobling  influence  that  is  good  for  the 
white  man  is  good  also  for  the  black  man. 
Eefusing  to  recognize  in  the  Negro  any  es- 
sential incapacity  for  education  except  of  a 
most  elementary  sort,  they  held  that,  in  due 
time  and  through  the  use  of  right  methods, 
the  privileges  of  higher  education  should  be 
open  to  him  as  well  as  to  the  white  man. 

They  maintained  also  that  no  race  could  be 
permanently  elevated  or  improved  by  con- 
tinued dependence  upon  another  race.  They 
believed  that  the  Negroes  must  save  them- 
selves from  the  perils  of  ignorance  and  sin, 
and  in  order  to  do  this  they  must  have  edu- 
[144] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

Gated  leaders  and  teachers  of  their  own  color 
in  the  largest  possible  numbers.  They  also 
recognized  the  necessity  for  manual  and  vo- 
cational training  and  in  Talladega,  Alabama, 
introduced  industrial  education  for  the  first 
time  in  the  South. 

Naturally  this  work  met  with  fierce  opposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  men  of  the  South,  who 
were  committed  to  the  proposition  that  the 
Negro  is  incapable  of  education.  Especially 
obnoxious  to  them  was  the  idea  of  collegiate 
training  for  those  who  had  been  slaves  or 
were  the  children  of  slaves.  Therefore  the 
teachers  whom  the  Association  sent  to  the 
South  were  not  merely  met  by  social  ostra- 
cism, but  were  also  hampered  in  every  way 
in  their  work.  Buildings  were  destroyed 
more  than  once,  threats  were  constantly 
made,  and  violence  was  frequently  experi- 
enced. The  teachers  were  called  fanatics 
and  the  entire  work  of  the  Association  was 
antagonized  at  every  point.  But  in  spite  of 
all  this  the  new  society  went  on  resolutely, 
establishing  institutions  like  Fiske,  Straight, 
Talladega,  and  Tougaloo. 

The  great  name  connected  with  this  move- 
ment is  that  of  General  Oliver  0.  Howard, 
one  of  the  bravest  and  most  judicious  leaders 
that  any  cause  ever  had.  He  was  a  familiar 
and  marked  figure  on  platforms  throughout 
the  country,  his  one  empty  sleeve  testifying 
to  the  loss  of  his  arm  in  battle. 
[  145  ] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

A  vivid  idea  of  the  heroic  work  done  by 
the  institutions  that  the  new  missionary  or- 
ganization founded  may  be  gained  from  two 
incidents  connected  with  Talladega.  In 
1867  the  Association  organized  this  school 
which  soon  had  three  teachers  and  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  pupils.  It  was  located  in  the 
heart  of  nine  counties  that  were  thickly  popu- 
lated. The  Negro  communities  everywhere 
were  calling  for  teachers  and  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  school  went  among  the  vil- 
lages he  met  the  colored  people  in  their  rude 
churches  and  heard  them  plead  for  teachers 
to  educate  their  children.  In  response  to  this 
appeal  he  could  only  reply: 

''Pick  out  the  best  specimen  of  a  young 
man  you  have  for  a  teacher,  and  bring  to 
church  with  you  next  Sunday  all  the  corn  and 
bacon  you  can  spare  for  his  living.  I  will 
take  him  into  my  school  and  make  a  teacher 
of  him." 

So  the  pupils  came,  sometimes  bringing 
corn  with  them  in  their  pockets  or  tied  in 
their  handkerchiefs,  laying  it  on  the  altar  in 
front  of  the  pulpit.  Some  of  them  came 
thirty  miles  on  foot  with  sacks  of  corn  and 
bacon  on  their  backs.  They  slept  on  the 
floor  of  log  cabins  and  baked  their  bread  by 
the  fire.  They  were  ignorant  even  of  the  al- 
phabet and  as  soon  as  one  of  them  would 
master  the  Second  and  Third  Readers  he 
would  begin  the  work  of  teaching  others.  In 
[146] 


The    Undeveloped   Races 

the  summer  the  pupils  would  go  back  home 
to  their  villages  to  teach  in  the  "bush 
schools"  until  they  could  return  to  learn 
more  at  Talladega.  Then  in  the  fall  they 
would  bring  their  corn  and  bacon,  asking  only 
for  a  place  to  bake  it  and  for  shelter  while 
they  lived  at  the  school. 

The  teachers  in  these  institutions  shared 
the  hard  conditions  with  the  pupils.  They 
worked  for  salaries  that  were  barely  large 
enough  to  sustain  them  and  they  justified 
their  ideals  by  meeting  every  hardship  with- 
out complaint.  The  people  developed  and 
the  school  grew  with  them.  Talladega  began 
with  one  edifice,  which  had  been  erected  by 
slaves  as  a  school  for  the  sons  of  their  mas- 
ters. During  the  War  this  building  had  been 
converted  into  a  prison  for  Northern  sol- 
diers. Later  the  American  Missionary  As- 
sociation purchased  it  for  the  use  of  the  race 
whose  slave  labor  had  reared  it  and  for  the 
purpose  of  completing  the  task  begun  by  the 
soldier-prisoners  who  had  been  confined 
within  its  walls.  The  leading  slave-carpen- 
ter, who  did  the  first  work  on  the  building, 
was  a  man  who  suffered  keenest  sorrow  be- 
cause his  children  never  could  have  such  an 
opportunity  for  an  education  as  was  to  be 
afforded  the  children  for  whom  he  and  his 
fellow  slaves  were  building  the  structure. 
Nevertheless,  this  humble  Negro  artisan 
lived  to  see  three  of  his  children  students  in 
[147] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

the  very  room  where  Northern  prisoners 
were  confined  in  1862.  He  lived  to  see  them 
take  diplomas  and  later  certain  of  them  to 
become  teachers  in  Talladega  College,  the 
first  building  of  which  he  had  helped  erect  as 
a  slave.  This  is  the  kind  of  success  that  has 
attended  the  efforts  of  Congregationalists  to 
carry  on  education  among  the  colored  people. 
And  thus  through  its  Christian  schools  for 
mind  and  hand  the  American  Missionary  As- 
sociation is  working  with  undiminished  faith 
to  complete  the  unfinished  task  of  making  the 
Negro  race  fully  free, 


[148] 


vin 

THE  FAITH  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS 


VIII 
THE  FAITH  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS 

IT  is  only  reasonable  to  expect  that  tlie 
Faith  which  came  to  America  in  the  good 
hope  that  something  could  be  done  to  lay 
Christian  foundations  for  the  gospel  among 
savages  would  respond  to  the  call  of  foreign 
missions  as  soon  as  that  great  modern  move- 
ment expressed  itself  in  the  conscious  life 
of  the  Church.  It  is  not  surprising,  there- 
fore, that  the  Pilgrim  Faith  was  the  first  in 
America  to  organize  a  society  for  foreign 
missions. 

The  Congregationalists,  as  we  have  seen, 
gave  themselves  earnestly  to  missions  among 
the  Indians ;  they  followed  the  receding  fron- 
tier with  preachers  and  teachers. 

As  time  went  on  there  developed  among 
them  also  a  sense  of  their  responsibility  for 
the  extension  of  the  gospel  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  United  States.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  the  year  1806  that  this  desire 
found  expression,  in  a  group  of  students  in 
Williams  College.  The  story  of  the  begin- 
ning of  this  movement  is  one  of  the  most  dra- 
[151] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

matic  and  interesting  episodes  in  the  history 
of  the  Congregational  churches.  About  a 
dozen  college  students  led  by  Samuel  J.  Mills 
became  deeply  concerned  over  the  moral  and 
spiritual  condition  of  the  heathen  inhabitants 
of  Asia  and  felt  themselves  personally  called 
to  undertake  a  mission  to  them.  Knowing 
that  their  purpose  of  entering  the  foreign 
field  would  be  considered  visionary  and  prob- 
ably impossible  of  immediate  realization, 
they  formed,  in  1808,  a  secret  society  called 
*'The  Brethren."  The  first  five  members  of 
this  organization  pledged  themselves  to  give 
their  lives  to  a  mission  to  the  heathen  in  for- 
eign lands.  Its  records  were  kept  in  cipher 
and  all  its  proceedings  and  deliberations 
were  a  profound  secret.  The  men  agreed  to 
be  bound  by  the  vote  of  the  brotherhood  as  to 
what  members  should  enter  the  work  and 
where  they  should  labor.  Meanwhile  they 
began  to  make  inquiries  concerning  the  pos- 
sibility of  gaining  support  for  their  enter- 
prise either  from  English  societies  already 
existing  or  through  the  organization  of  a  so- 
ciety to  furnish  means  for  them  from  the 
home  base  in  America. 

These  Williams  College  students  had  been 
deeply  stirred  by  the  general  religious  re- 
vival among  the  Congregational  churches  in 
New  England  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  during  the  first  few  years  of  the 
nineteenth.  A  number  of  them  went  to  An- 
[152] 


ROBERT   COLLEGE,   CONSTANTINOPLE 


SYRL^JSr   PROTESTANT   COLLEGE,   BEIRUT,  SYRIA 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

dover  Seminary  on  completing  their  course 
in  "Williams  and  there  they  found  other 
young  men  who  had  the  same  desire  that  had 
led  to  the  formation  of  The  Brethren.  One 
of  these  Andover  students  was  Adoniram 
Judson,  Jr.,  a  graduate  of  Brown  and  he  soon 
became  a  leading  spirit  among  the  growing 
missionary  group.  The  Seminary  was  pro- 
foundly stirred  by  their  spirit  and  finally  the 
young  men  formulated  their  purpose  and  ad- 
dressed inquiries  to  a  meeting  of  the  general 
Association  of  Massachusetts  held  in  June, 
1810.  This  Association  was  made  up  of  Con- 
gregational ministers  whose  sympathies 
were  strongly  with  evangelical  theology  and 
to  whom  The  Brethren  felt  that  they  could 
appeal  for  counsel  and  support.  The  result 
of  their  communication  was  the  formation 
of  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  a  society  composed 
originally  of  nine  members  from  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts,  who  were  to  study  the 
missionary  problem  and  decide  whether 
enough  money  could  be  raised  to  support  the 
students  then  ready  to  volunteer  for  mission- 
ary service  abroad.  The  strong  influence  of 
the  Congregationalists  in  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  is  shown  by  the  names  of  the 
nine  charter  members  of  this  Board,  the  ma- 
jority of  whom  were  men  of  outstanding 
prominence:  Governor  John  Treadwell  of 
Connecticut  was  the  first  president  of  the 
[153] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

new  organization,  and  Rev.  Samuel  Worces- 
ter was  its  secretary. 

In  this  way  the  missionary  faith  and  pur- 
pose of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  was  given  a  new 
expression  and  the  religious  passion  of  the 
Congregational  churches,  revived  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  found  an  outlet. 

The  next  step  to  be  noted  is  the  ordination 
in  the  Tabernacle  Church  of  Salem,  in  the 
spring  of  1812,  of  five  young  men  who  were 
to  undertake  the  first  mission  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Board.  This  was  one  of  the 
great  historical  ordinations  in  Congrega- 
tional history,  like  that  which  was  celebrated 
thirty-one  years  later  ^  in  the  little  church 
in  Denmark,  Iowa,  and  like  the  service  held 
in  Salem  in  1912  as  a  centennial  celebration 
of  the  previous  ceremony  in  the  Tabernacle 
Church. 

The  foreign  missionary  work  of  the  Con- 
gregationalists  began  in  India  and  Ceylon 
under  the  greatest  difficulties.  The  East 
India  Company,  which  had  control  of  affairs 
in  India,  was  not  willing  to  allow  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  American  Board  to  land 
in  Calcutta.  The  young  missionaries  were 
obliged  to  escape  in  disguise,  like  prisoners, 
and  to  scatter  to  different  places.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Judson  went  to  Burma  and  Gordon  Hall 
went  to  Bombay. 

Judson  and  Rice,  another  of  the  mission- 

1  See  page  119. 

[  154  ] 


The    Faith   in    Foreign    Lands 

aries,  soon  afterward  became  converted  to 
Baptist  ideas  and  left  the  service  of  the 
Board.  After  a  severe  and  prolonged  strug- 
gle in  getting  started,  a  foothold  was  gained 
in  Bombay  and  work  was  also  begun  in  Jaffa, 
in  the  island  of  Ceylon.  The  cost  of  all 
these  missions  was  fearful.  Gordon  Hall 
laid  down  his  life  after  a  short  term  of  de- 
voted service  and  it  soon  became  impossible 
for  the  Board  to  send  out  new  men  fast 
enough  to  keep  pace  with  the  deaths  that 
were  occurring  in  the  ranks  of  the  mission- 
aries on  the  field.  At  this  time  the  average 
term  of  service  of  a  missionary  was  only  five 
years  and  three  months,  a  condition  due  in 
large  degree  to  the  fact  that  the  early 
workers  did  not  know  how  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  not  understanding  the  nature  of 
disease  in  India  and  Africa.  And  so  the 
Congregationalists  have  had  to  pay  a  terrible 
price  for  the  opening  up  of  their  missionary 
stations  in  these  far  countries. 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  difficulties  and  the 
struggle  with  strange  languages,  the  work  in 
India  went  steadily  onward,  beginning  with 
schools  and  being  crowned,  often  after  weary 
years  of  waiting,  with  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen  natives,  their  baptism,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  churches. 

To  tell  of  the  heroic  work  of  the  mission- 
aries of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  foreign  lands 
during  the  century  that  has  passed  since  the 
[155] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

organization  of  the  American  Board  would 
be  impossible  within  the  compass  of  this 
brief  chapter.  Rather  than  attempt  a  gen- 
eral sketch,  we  have  chosen  to  select  only  a 
few  instances  of  work  in  heathen  lands  and 
to  present  them  as  fair  examples  of  what  has 
been  done  through  the  American  Board  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  world. ^ 

A  dramatic  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
American  Board  is  that  which  records  the 
work  done  by  its  representatives  in  the  Sand- 
wich Islands.  Attention  was  first  turned  to 
this  field  in  a  manner  that  is  full  of  human 
tenderness  and  sympathy.  A  lad  who  had 
escaped  from  massacre  in  a  civil  war  in  the 
Islands  had  been  brought  to  New  Haven  as  a 
refugee  by  a  friendly  sea  captain.  This  boy, 
Henry  Obookiah,  was  found  one  day  on  the 
steps  of  Yale  College  by  Samuel  J.  Mills. 
He  was  weeping  bitterly  for  loneliness  and 
especially  because  he  could  not  obtain  an  edu- 
cation such  as  other  boys  were  enjoying  at 
Yale.  To  the  sympathetic  heart  and  fervid 
imagination  of  Mills  this  pathetic  incident 
seemed  nothing  less  than  a  providential  sign 
pointing  out  the  Sandwich  Islands  as  a  fu- 
ture mission  field.  The  idea  of  inaugurat- 
ing Christian  work  there  was  later  brought 
before  the  American  Board  and  received  its 
approval.    In     1819     a     missionary     party 

1  The  whole  story  is  told  in  an  interesting  and  thorough 
way  by  Strong  in  "The  Story  of  the  American  Board,"  1910. 

[156] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

started  for  the  Islands  by  way  of  Cape  Horn 
and  reached  their  destination  at  the  end  of  a 
tedious  voyage  which  consumed  five  months 
of  time. 

This  party  found  that  conditions  in  the 
Islands  had  been  unmistakably  prepared  for 
the  work  by  reforms  which  had  already  been 
instituted  by  a  new  king.  The  old  customs 
that  had  been  even  more  cruel  than  the  bond- 
age of  caste  had  been  done  away  within  a 
moment,  and  the  field  was  ready  for  preach- 
ing and  religious  work  of  all  other  kinds. 
The  moral  conditions  of  the  people  were  at  a 
very  low  level  and  the  task  before  the  mis- 
sionaries was  exceedingly  difficult.  How- 
ever, the  favor  of  the  royal  family  was 
secured  and  the  chiefs  themselves  took  inter- 
est, not  merely  in  the  schools,  but  even  in  the 
preaching  of  the  missionaries.  Converts 
were  made  in  the  king's  household  and 
among  the  heads  of  tribes. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  conditions  that  the 
missionaries  were  forced  to  contend  with  re- 
sulted from  the  coming  of  foreign  ships  to 
the  Islands.  While  these  vessels  were  in  the 
harbor  the  sailors  and  even  the  officers  would 
give  themselves  up  to  every  kind  of  debauch- 
ery. The  influence  of  these  representatives 
of  so-called  Christian  nations  was  the  most 
demoralizing  form  of  opposition  that  the 
missionaries  were  obliged  to  meet.  Even  the 
crews  of  ships  representing  the  United 
[157] 


The   Pilg  ri7n   Faith 

States  Government  promoted  this  debauch- 
ery and  on  one  occasion  the  commander  of 
one  of  them  threatened  to  shoot  the  mission- 
ary who  insisted  upon  decent  behavior.  The 
faithful  missionary  owed  his  life  to  the  fact 
that  the  natives  fought  off  his  own  country- 
men, who  were  trying  to  murder  him  for 
preventing  their  wicked  business.  In  spite 
of  all  this  opposition  and  difficulty  great  prog- 
ress was  registered,  and  by  1832,  as  the  rec- 
ords show,  the  people  of  the  Sandwich  Islands 
had  become  practically  a  Christian  nation. 

In  1835  Titus  Coan  went  to  the  Islands  and 
began  his  remarkable  ministry  among  the 
natives.  He  was  a  man  of  great  physical 
strength  and  was  able  to  undertake  most  dif- 
ficult journeys  among  the  villagers  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  Islands.  His  preaching  was  so 
effective  that  crowds  of  natives  flocked  into 
Hilo  to  hear  more  of  the  gospel,  and  great 
throngs  assembled  at  all  the  stations.  From 
1836  to  1839  there  was  a  great  union  of 
prayer  throughout  America  and  the  Islands, 
and  large  results  began  to  reward  the  labor 
of  the  missionaries. 

The  converts  were  carefully  examined  be- 
fore being  admitted  to  church  membership 
and  were  patiently  taught  and  followed  by 
the  counsel  of  the  missionaries. 

The  great  work  of  evangelization  culmi- 
nated in  July,  1838,  when  the  missionaries 
baptized  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  five 
[158] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

persons  in  one  day.  Mr.  Coan  describes  the 
scene  himself  in  the  following  words : 

"The  old  and  decrepit,  the  lame,  the  blind, 
the  maimed,  the  withered,  the  paralytic,  and 
those  afflicted  with  divers  diseases  and  tor- 
ments ;  those  with  eyes,  noses,  lips,  and  limbs 
consumed;  with  features  distorted,  and  fig- 
ures depraved  and  loathsome;  these  came 
hobbling  upon  their  staves,  or  led  and  borne 
by  others  to  the  table  of  the  Lord.  Among 
the  throng  you  would  have  seen  the  hoary 
priest  of  idolatry,  with  hands  but  recently 
washed  from  the  blood  of  human  victims  to- 
gether with  thieves,  adulterers,  highway  rob- 
bers, murderers  and  mothers  whose  hands 
reeked  with  the  blood  of  their  own  children. 
It  seemed  like  one  of  the  crowds  the  Saviour 
gathered  and  over  which  he  pronounced  the 
words  of  healing." 

One  more  heroic  episode  ought  to  be  re- 
corded in  telling  the  story  of  the  work  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands.  The  terror  of  the  natives 
there  was  Pele,  the  goddess  of  the  great  vol- 
cano Mauna  Loa,  who  dwelt  in  the  crater. 
All  the  people  were  under  bondage  to  the 
power  which  she  was  supposed  to  possess. 
Finally  Kapiolani,  a  woman  of  royal  descent, 
accepted  the  Christian  faith,  renounced  all 
her  immoralities,  and  became  a  sweet,  useful 
Christian  woman.  In  1825  she  felt  that 
something  ought  to  be  done  to  ransom  the 
people  from  their  idolatry  to  the  goddess  of 
[159] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

the  volcano,  whom  they  endeavored  to  ap- 
pease with  human  sacrifice  and  of  whose  ter- 
rible wrath  they  lived  in  constant  dread. 
Against  the  earnest  requests  of  her  husband 
and  friends,  Kapiolani  determined  to  go  her- 
self to  the  volcano,  defying  the  goddess,  thus 
freeing  the  people  from  their  fear.  Fol- 
lowed at  a  distance  by  trembling  crowds,  she 
rebuked  the  prophets  of  the  goddess,  went 
straight  to  the  brink  of  the  crater,  ate  the 
sacred  berries  consecrated  to  the  awful  di- 
vinity, and  then  threw  stones  into  the  boiling 
abyss,  defying  Pele  with  derisive  taunts. 
When  only  silence  greeted  her  jeering  words, 
Kapiolani  turned  to  the  astonished  people, 
who  had  now  ventured  near  her  and  called 
upon  them  to  acknowledge  God  the  Father 
and  accept  the  Christian  faith.  She  read  the 
Bible  and  led  them  in  song  and  prayer,  and 
there  on  the  edge  of  the  crater,  free  forever 
from  their  idolatry  and  from  their  fear  of  the 
false  goddess,  they  worshiped  and  praised 
the  one  true  God.  Not  even  the  defiance  of 
the  prophets  of  Baal  on  Mount  Carmel  is 
more  heroic  than  this  courageous  act  of  Kap- 
iolani in  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

The  final  result  of  the  great  mission  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands  was  the  formation  of  a  na- 
tive church,  which  is  now  conducted  in  a  self- 
reliant  way  by  the  islanders  themselves. 

There  are  many  persons  living  today  who 
have  witnessed  the  entire  process  of  opening 
[160] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

Japan  to  modern  civilization  and  to  the  in- 
fluences of  Christianity.  It  was  a  very  im- 
portant year  in  the  history  of  Japan  when 
Commodore  Perry  came  in  1854  with  the 
United  States  warships  and  the  movement 
began  for  the  admission  of  foreigners  to  the 
Empire.  Five  years  later  the  American 
Board  sent  as  its  first  missionaries  to  the 
new  field,  Eev.  Daniel  Crosby  Greene  and  his 
wife  who  began  Christian  work  in  Japan. 
There  followed,  soon  after,  a  group  of  work- 
ers whose  names  are  among  the  most  dis- 
tinguished in  the  long  register  of  the  foreign 
missionaries  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith:  0.  H. 
Gulick,  J.  D.  Davis,  John  C.  Berry,  and  M.  L. 
Gordon. 

Starting  in  the  face  of  great  obstacles, 
such  as  the  laws  barring  foreigners  from  ac- 
tivity in  religious  matters  and  the  violent 
opposition  of  the  Buddhist  priests,  these  mis- 
sionaries nevertheless  had  on  their  side  the 
resistless  pressure  of  Western  knowledge 
and  ideals,  for  which  the  people  of  Japan 
were  eager.  Christianity  is  so  prominent 
and  pervasive  an  element  in  Western  civiliza- 
tion that  every  response  of  the  Japanese 
mind  to  the  new  influences  redounded  to  the 
advantage  of  the  missionaries.  Events 
moved  rapidly  in  Japan;  there  was  no  long 
period  of  waiting  for  the  first  convert,  as 
there  had  been  in  India.  In  1873  the  im- 
perial edicts  against  Christianity  were  re- 
[  161  ] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

pealed.  Schools  and  medical  work  were  be- 
gun and  both  complemented  efficiently  the 
evangelistic  work  of  the  missionaries. 

The  most  dramatically  interesting  item  in 
the  story  of  the  mission  to  Japan  is  con- 
cerned with  the  name  of  Joseph  Hardy  Nees- 
ima,  a  Japanese,  who  was  born  in  1843.    Am- 
bitious and  hungry  for  knowledge,  he  one  day 
found  a  small  Bible  history  that  had  been 
written  in  Chinese  by  a  missionary,  and  on 
reading  it  he  learned  that  the  true  name  for 
God  was   '* Heavenly  Father."     This  truth 
was  an  illumination  to  his  eager  soul  and  it 
served  to  quicken  his  yearning  for  an  educa- 
tion in  order  that  he  might  learn  more  con- 
cerning religion.    But  the  means  of  obtain- 
ing intellectual  and  moral  instruction  were 
not  to  be  had  in  Japan,  and  it  was  against  the 
law  for  any  native  to  leave  the  country  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  government.     Death 
was  the  penalty  meted  out  to  those  who  were 
captured  in  trying  to  escape.    Nevertheless 
Neesima  was  willing  to  risk  the  danger  in- 
volved in  gaining  what  he  desired.     Secretly 
he  went  on  board  a  brig  in  command  of  an 
American  captain;  he  reached  Shanghai,  and 
finally  worked  his  way  on  the  Wild  Rover 
to  Boston,  where  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  noblest  Con- 
gregational  laymen   of   New   England,   Al- 
pheus  Hardy,  who  was  the  owner  of  the  ship. 
"With  the  help  of  Mr.  Hardy,  the  young  Jap- 
[162] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

anese  was  enabled  to  study  in  Phillips  Acad- 
emy, Andover;  in  Amherst  College,  and  in 
Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

Neesima's  character  appears  in  three  quo- 
tations from  his  letters.^  His  industry  is 
shown  by  this : 

"I  must  go  up  to  Boston  by  all  means.  I 
proposed  to  go  last  Monday  when  I  finish  my 
sawing  wood.  (0,  hard  wood!  Made  my 
spinal  column  pain!) 

His  consecration  is  shown  here: 

''When  I  saw  the  Japan  minister  at  Am- 
herst I  told  him  that  I  would  not  go  home 
concealing  my  Christian  faith  like  a  trem- 
bling thief  goes  in  the  dark  night  under  the 
fear  of  discovery,  but  go  there  as  a  Christian 
man  walking  in  a  Christian  love  and  doing 
things  according  to  the  light  of  my  con- 
science. ' ' 

Still  more  concisely  his  life  motive  is  put 
thus: 

*'I  have  a  plow  on  my  hands;  I  must  work 
for  my  Lord." 

In  the  autumn  of  1874  Neesima  was  or- 
dained to  the  Christian  ministry  in  Boston 
and  soon  afterward  he  went  to  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  American  Board  in  Eutland, 
Vermont.  His  own  ideal  for  his  people  and 
his  future  work  was  by  this  time  clearly  de- 
fined  in  his  mind.     He  wished   to  have   a 

1  Hardy,  "Life  and  Letters  of  Joseph  Hardy  Neesima," 
1891,  pp.  79,  103,  111. 

[163] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

school  established  in  his  country  especially 
for  the  future  leaders  of  the  new  Japan.  He 
desired  also  the  fullest  opportunities  for  the 
education  of  a  strong  native  ministry  for  the 
Christian  churches  in  the  Empire;  nothing 
less  than  the  '^best  possible  downright  Chris- 
tian institution"  would  answer. 

When  he  was  given  the  opportunity  to 
speak  from  the  platform  at  this  Vermont 
meeting,  a  most  dramatic  scene  occurred. 
Neesima  broke  into  a  wholly  unprepared 
speech,  leaving  unspoken  the  words  he  had 
meant  to  use;  but  with  passionate  earnest- 
ness he  put  forth  his  plea  for  his  people,  say- 
ing that  he  must  have  the  means  to  begin  a 
school  at  once  and  declaring  that  he  would 
not  take  his  seat  until  the  money  was  given. 
The  effect  was  electrical.  He  carried  the 
audience  by  storm,  and  five  thousand  dollars 
was  pledged  on  the  spot.  Thus  came  into  be- 
ing the  Doshisha,  one  of  the  most  famous  in- 
stitutions in  Japan. 

The  missions  in  Japan  have  had  a  history 
filled  with  difficult  and  perplexing  problems. 
It  has  been  possible,  however,  to  adjust  the 
relations  between  the  Japanese  churches  and 
the  missionaries  in  Christian  affection  and 
mutual  forbearance.  The  Pilgrim  Faith  has 
had  great  leaders  in  Japan  and  the  result  of 
its  work  grows  and  abides  in  the  Empire. 

It  is  impossible  to  take  up  in  detail  the 
missionary  activities  of  the  Congregational- 
[164] 


The    Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

ists  in  China  and  India,  in  Africa  and  the 
Pacific  Islands.  In  each  of  these  fields  the 
story  is  full  of  noble  sacrifice  and  valiant 
deeds  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries.  It  is 
in  the  realm  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  among 
the  non-Mohammedan  people,  and  now  even 
among  the  Mohammedans  themselves,  that 
much  of  the  strongest  work  of  the  American 
Board  has  been  done.  The  arduous  fields  in 
this  vast  country  have  become  in  a  peculiar 
degree  the  responsibility  of  the  churches  that 
maintain  the  Pilgrim  Faith,  and  while  they 
present  unique  difficulty,  they  involve  also 
especial  obligation  and  opportunity.  There 
has  always  been  in  the  Bible  lands  that  pecul- 
iar lure  which  once  called  out  military  cru- 
sades to  rescue  the  tomb  of  the  Saviour  from 
unbelievers  and  which,  in  this  later  day,  has 
challenged  the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  accept  the 
much  nobler  mission  of  rescuing  the  souls  of 
living  men  from  their  bondage  to  a  destroy- 
ing religion. 

In  1820,  two  representatives  of  the  Board, 
Eev.  Pliny  Fiske  and  Rev.  Levi  Parsons, 
went  to  Smyrna  to  make  a  study  of  the  mis- 
sionary problem  and  to  gain  a  knowledge  of 
the  language  which  they  would  have  to  use 
in  future  work.  Fiske  died  soon  after  at 
Beirut,  one  of  the  noblest  martyrs  to  the 
heroic  zeal  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

The  American  Board  made  careful  inves- 
tigations in  the  Turkish  Empire  before  locat- 
[165] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

ing  any  of  its  missions  there.  Finally,  after 
being  compelled  to  withdraw  for  a  time  from 
Beirut  where  a  temporary  station  had  been 
placed,  it  decided  to  establish  its  headquar- 
ters at  Constantinople,  the  capital  of  the 
country.  Eev.  William  Goodell  was  chosen 
to  begin  the  work  there.  Associated  with 
him  were  Eev.  Harrison  G.  Dwight  and  Rev. 
William  G.  Schauffler.  These  three  men  per- 
formed a  remarkable  service  in  education, 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  evangelistic 
preaching,  devoting  especial  attention  and 
care  to  the  Armenians  in  Turkey  and  the 
Nestorians  in  Persia.  The  Nestorian  mis- 
sion was  finally  turned  over  to  the  Presby- 
terians; but  the  American  Board  has  con- 
tinued its  very  successful  work  among  the 
Armenians.  Schools  and  colleges  have  been 
founded;  churches  have  been  organized  and 
furnished  with  trained  native  pastors. 

During  the  terrible  massacres  through 
which  the  Armenians  have  passed,  the  mis- 
sionaries have  been  their  counsellors  and 
defenders,  occupying  a  position  between  them 
and  their  foes  which  has  generally  com- 
manded the  respect  of  both  parties.  One  of 
the  most  beneficent  services  of  the  missions 
has  been  the  care  which  they  have  afforded  to 
thousands  of  Armenian  children  who  have 
been  made  orphans  by  the  massacres. 

The  missionaries  themselves  have  endured 
bitter  persecution  in  Turkey  and  have  often 
[166] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

narrowly  escaped  death.  Not  always,  how- 
ever, have  they  been  so  fortunate  at  the 
hands  of  their  enemies.  In  1909  Rev.  D. 
Miner  Rogers,  a  brave  and  devoted  young 
man,  son-in-law  of  Dr.  Christie  of  Tarsus, 
was  shot  to  death  in  Adana. 

Events  have  followed  one  another  so 
rapidly  in  Turkey  within  the  past  few  years 
that  it  is  diflScult  to  understand  or  to  account 
for  all  the  new  forms  of  government  that 
have  sprung  into  being.  To  claim  that  all 
the  modern  movements  for  constitutional 
government  and  freedom  have  resulted  from 
the  teaching  and  influence  of  the  missionaries 
would  be  absurd;  but  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion that  the  greatest  single  factor  making 
for  these  ends  has  been  the  schools,  the 
ideals,  the  preaching,  and  the  daily  life  and 
service  of  the  strong  men  from  the  West  who 
have  been  kept  by  the  churches  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  as  their  representatives  in  the 
Turkish  Empire. 

The  greatest  caution  has  been  exercised 
by  the  teachers  in  the  schools  and  colleges 
that  the  Board  maintains  in  Turkey  to  con- 
trol any  outbreak  of  sedition  among  the  stu- 
dents, and  in  this  they  have  been  remarkably 
successful.  Within  a  few  months  the  grand 
vizier  of  the  Turkish  cabinet,  in  a  conference 
with  the  American  ambassador  at  Constan- 
tinople, raised  an  objection  against  the  mis- 
sionary schools  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
[167] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

hotbeds  of  revolution.  The  ambassador  re- 
plied: 

''In  yonr  own  national  schools,  even  here 
at  the  capital  during  the  last  five  years  you 
have  arrested,  punished,  and  sent  into  exile 
hundreds  of  young  men  for  disloyalty;  give 
me  an  instance  where  you  or  your  officers 
have  traced  a  single  case  of  seditious  propa- 
ganda or  revolution  to  an  American  mission- 
ary school." 

The  grand  vizier  was  obliged  to  admit  that 
there  could  not  be  such  a  case  found  and  so 
his  argument  fell  to  the  ground  unsupported 
for  want  of  proof. 

In  many  respects  the  splendor  of  the 
Turkish  missions  is  seen  in  the  educational 
institutions  which  have  been  directly  or  in- 
directly founded  and  supported  by  the 
American  Board.  In  1838  Rev.  Cyrus 
Hamlin  was  commissioned  for  educational 
work  in  Turkey,  and  while  officially  in  their 
service  he  organized  and  developed  Bebek 
Seminary,  which  was  located  near  Constan- 
tinople until  1860,  when  it  was  removed  to 
Marsovan.  [Under  the  patronage  of  Mr. 
Christopher  R.  Robert  of  New  York  Dr. 
Hamlin  then  began  the  work  that  finally 
issued  successfully  in  the  founding  of  Robert 
College,  one  of  the  most  widely-known  edu- 
cational institutions  in  the  Orient.  For  over 
seven  years  he  struggled  with  resourceful 
obstinacy  to  secure  possession  of  a  site  for 
[168] 


The   Faith   in   Foreign   Lands 

the  College  and  to  obtain  permission  to  erect 
the  necessary  buildings.  The  Turkish  gov- 
ernment evidently  determined,  not  only  in 
accordance  with  its  natural  desire,  but  also 
in  response  to  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits 
and  of  Russia,  that  it  never  would  grant  the 
desired  permission  to  build  the  college  upon 
the  commanding  site  that  had  been  purchased 
by  Dr.  Hamlin  for  this  purpose.  Finally,  in 
a  most  unexpected  way,  the  imperial  per- 
mission was  suddenly  given,  the  College  was 
located  on  the  Bosphorus  in  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  places  in  the  world — and  it  was 
placed  under  the  protection  of  the  United 
States.  Since  then  Robert  College  has  ex- 
erted a  profound  influence  upon  the  great 
region  whose  leaders  it  has  educated.  Like 
the  Syrian  Protestant  College  at  Beirut,  it 
is  molding  the  life  of  the  countries  all  around 
the  eastern  Mediterranean. 

The  institutions  which  are  directly  under 
the  control  of  the  American  Board  are  in- 
fluencing popular  life  in  the  same  way.  In 
practically  every  mission  station  the  educa- 
tional work  is  being  pressed  with  vigor,  and, 
as  a  result,  trained  leaders  are  being  fur- 
nished not  only  for  the  churches  but  also  in 
every  department  of  life,  where  the  graduates 
of  the  Christian  Colleges  are  expressing 
practically  the  ideals  that  have  been  im- 
pressed upon  them  by  their  teachers  from 
America. 

[169] 


IX 

THE  FAITH  AND  CHEISTIAN 
THEOLOGY 


IX 

THE   FAITH  AND   CHRISTIAN 
THEOLOGY 

IT  is  quite  the  fashion  today  to  disparage 
theology  and  to  exalt  the  practical  activi- 
ties of  the  Christian  life  far  above  religious 
doctrines.  This  empha-sis  upon  deed  to  the 
disregard  of  dogma  has  not  been  a  character- 
istic of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  the  past ;  and  it 
will  not  continue  permanently  as  such.  Con- 
gregationalists  have  been  lovers  and  de- 
fenders of  Christian  truth  in  its  doctrinal 
forms  and  sooner  or  later  they  will  again  ap- 
preciate the  worth  and  interest  of  the  great 
theological  principles  that  lie  behind  all 
Christian  duties  as  their  warrant.  Those 
who  hold  the  Pilgrim  Faith  ought  especially 
to  be  interested  in  the  discussion  of  Christian 
doctrine,  for  it  was  the  leaders  of  their 
Churches  who  contributed  the  ''New  England 
Theology"  to  American  thought.  Of  this 
profound  and  forceful  system  of  Christian 
doctrine  Professor  Frank  H.  Foster  says: 
*'No  American  theological  scholar  can  claim 
to  understand  the  course  of  religious  thought 
among  us,  who  has  not  made  himself  familiar 
[173] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

with  this  greatest  indigenous  school  of  Ameri- 
can theology."  ^ 

For  almost  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  the 
New  England  Theology  reigned  in  America. 
It  was  held  and  taught  and  preached  by  lay- 
men, professors  and  ministers;  it  inspired 
men  to  undertake  reforms  and  benevolent 
service  of  every  kind.  Its  staunch  defenders 
built  colleges,  followed  the  frontier  with  self- 
denying  labor,  and  held  their  own  lives  under 
the  control  of  its  imperial  moral  demands. 
At  present  it  is  not  taught  in  the  theological 
seminaries  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  and  whether 
it  will  ever  in  any  form  be  reinstated  remains 
to  be  seen.  The  general  outline  of  its  tenets 
and  at  least  a  brief  sketch  of  its  great  ex- 
ponents ought  to  be  familiar  to  everyone  who 
would  understand  the  history  of  American 
thought. 

To  attempt  in  one  brief  chapter  to  cover 
fully  and  adequately  the  movements  in  theo- 
logical thinking  for  a  century  and  a  half 
would  be  manifestly  absurd.  Only  the  out- 
standing points  can  be  touched  upon  and  only 
the  chief  characters  in  the  process  of  its  de- 
velopment can  be  mentioned.  It  is  difficult  to 
present  the  matter,  moreover,  because  of  the 
lack  of  terms  that  have  definite  meaning  to 
the  present  generation.  A  new  world  of 
theological  ideas  has  come  into  being  within 

1  "A   Genetic   History   of   the   New   England   Theology," 
1907,  p.  vi. 

[174] 


WILLIAM    D.    HYDE  HENRY    CHURCHILL    KING 

CYRUS    NORTHRUP 
W.    DOUGLAS    MACKENZIE  OZORA    S.    DAVIS 


Christian    Theology 

the  last  half-century  and  words  have  lost 
their  original  connotation  or  become  prac- 
tically obsolete,  while  many  terms  have  been 
coined  to  describe  modern  conceptions. 
*'Supralapsarianism,"  for  instance,  is  prac- 
tically meaningless  to  most  people  nowadays, 
while  the  term  ''ability"  has  for  the  modern 
man  nothing  of  the  significance  that  it  bore 
to  the  thoughtful  laymen  who  listened  to  the 
preaching  of  Hopkins  and  Bellamy. 

The  New  England  theology  ^  arose,  as  its 
name  would  suggest,  in  that  section  of  Amer- 
ica where  the  influence  of  Yale  College  was 
dominant,  and  among  ministers  who  were 
engaged  with  the  practical  works  of  country 
parishes.  Its  background  was  the  general 
system  of  Christian  doctrines  which  has  been 
put  into  form  by  the  Westminster  Assembly. 
These  had  been  adopted  as  the  standards  of 
Christian  truth  in  New  England  in  1648  and 
1708.  They  represent  the  system,  which  we 
may  call  old  Calvinism,  which  kept  its  prac- 
tically unbroken  hold  upon  the  minds  of  New 
England  Congregationalists  until  the  time  of 
Jonathan  Edwards. 

1  "It  may  be  formally  defined  as  the  Calvinism  of  West- 
minster and  Dort  modified  by  a  more  ethical  conception  of 
God,  by  a  new  emphasis  upon  the  liberty,  ability  and  re- 
sponsibility of  man,  by  the  restriction  of  moral  quality  to 
action  in  distinction  from  nature,  and  by  the  theory  that 
the  constitutive  principle  of  virtue  is  benevolence."' — Fos- 
ter, "New  SchaflF-Herzog  Religious  Encyclopaedia,"  Art.  on 
"New  England  Theology." 

[175] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

Two  influences  were  at  work  in  New  Eng- 
land in  opposition  to  the  early  religious 
thought  and  life  of  the  colonists.  The  first 
was  the  decline  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
condition  of  the  people.  The  second  and 
third  generations,  as  we  have  noted,  fell 
sadly  away  from  the  standards  and  practice 
of  the  first.  The  signs  of  conversion  did  not 
appear  in  the  personal  characters  of  men 
and  women  who  had  been  baptized  by  the 
church  in  infancy  and  reared  in  Christian 
homes  by  devout  parents.  It  was  only 
through  the  device  of  the  ''Half -Way  Cov- 
enant" that  membership  in  the  churches  was 
maintained  and  by  1707  Eev.  Solomon  Stod- 
dard of  Northampton  had  come  to  the  point 
where  he  openly  advocated  that  persons  who 
had  not  yet  experienced  conversion  should 
partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which,  it  was 
hoped,  would  become  a  ''converting  ordi- 
nance." 

The  second  influence  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Arminian  writings  of  the  English  theolo- 
gians, Tillotson,  Taylor  and  Whitby,  whose 
works  were  read  extensively  by  the  New 
England  ministers.  These  writers  attacked 
the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  as 
stated  in  its  most  radical  form  by  the  Cal- 
vinistic  school,  and  laid  emphasis  upon  the 
power  of  the  human  will  in  repentance  and 
upon  a  "conditional  election  to  be  made  sure 
by  good  works." 

[176] 


Christian    Theology 

It  was  in  order  to  revive  and  restore  the 
spiritual  life  of  his  congregation  and  to  re- 
fute the  errors  of  Arminianism  which  he 
found  ''prevailing'^  among  them,  that  Jona- 
than Edwards  preached  in  Northampton, 
Massachusetts,  the  series  of  sermons  on 
''Justification  by  Faith"  which  began  the 
Great  Awakening  in  1734.  He  sought  to 
present  the  doctrines  of  Old  Calvinism  in 
such  fresh  and  convincing  logical  forms  as 
would  furnish  new  moral  motives  to  his  con- 
gregation and  would  overthrow  the  false  doc- 
trine of  the  Arminians.  It  may  have  been 
the  new  statement  of  the  old  truths  or  it  may 
have  been — and  this  is  the  more  likely — the 
passionate  intensity  of  the  preacher  that 
produced  the  desired  effect  so  far  as  chang- 
ing the  lives  of  the  people  was  concerned. 
Instead  of  waiting  in  a  passive  and  almost 
hopeless  despair  for  the  movement  of  divine 
grace  to  accomplish  their  conversion,  men  be- 
gan to  expect  confidently  that  the  experience 
of  regeneration  would  follow  strong  evan- 
gelistic preaching  and  the  fervent  desire  of 
the  sinner  for  forgiveness  and  peace.  But 
when  Edwards  sought  to  lead  his  people  back 
to  the  early  New  England  practice  of  insist- 
ing upon  the  visible  signs  of  the  new  birth 
as  the  condition  of  church  membership,  he 
was  dismissed  from  his  Northampton  par- 
ish, whence  he  went  as  a  missionary  to  the 
Indians  at  Stockbridge  in  the  western  part 
[177] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

of  Massacliusetts.  Here  he  lived  for  a  time 
and  here  he  wrote  his  great  work,  "The 
Freedom  of  the  WilL"  It  was  his  purpose 
in  this  treatise  to  refute  the  Arminians,  and 
it  is  distinctly  and  plainly  the  work  of  an  ad- 
vocate. Yet  the  discussion  is  so  keen  and 
its  influence  has  been  so  important  that  the 
book  ranks  as  one  of  the  greatest  ever  writ- 
ten in  America.  Edwards'  line  of  reasoning, 
stated  briefly,  is  as  follows:  The  will  is 
not  exempt  from  the  universal  law  of  cause 
and  effect,  for  it  is  moved  by  ''causes" — 
namely,  the  motives  that  exert  an  influence 
upon  it.  Hence  the  choices  of  the  will  are 
as  necessary  as  the  events  of  the  physical 
world.  The  real  freedom  of  the  will  con- 
sists in  man's  power  to  do  what  he  wills  and 
not  at  all  in  any  power  to  will  what  he  wills, 
for  this  he  does  not  possess.  Therefore  we 
are  not  free  to  control  the  motives  that  act 
upon  the  will,  but  are  free  only  to  follow  the 
choice  that  the  will  has  made.  This  will  be 
determined  by  the  greatest  apparent  good,  or, 
in  the  terse  form  in  which  the  statement  was 
commonly  made,  "The  will  is  as  the  greatest 
apparent  good."  Therefore  when  God  re- 
veals Himself  to  man  as  the  supreme  Good, 
the  will  is  moved  to  choose  Him ;  man  is  then 
free  to  do  what  the  will  has  been  determined 
to  choose.  By  these  logical  steps  Edwards 
believed  that  he  had  vindicated  the  sov- 
ereignty of  God  in  controlling  man,  and  that 
[178] 


Christian    Theology 

at  the  same  time  he  had  established  the 
reality  of  man's  true  freedom.  He  affirmed 
with  new  force  the  supreme  sovereignty 
which  the  Arminians  declared  God  does  not 
have  and  he  shattered  the  freedom  ''to  do 
what  he  will,"  which  they  confidently  and 
unflinchingly  attributed  to  man. 

The  next  contribution  of  Edwards  was  to 
the  discussion  of  sin  and  virtue.  He  held  to 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin  through  the  ''di- 
vine constitution,"  which,  he  believed,  con- 
nects all  men  with  Adam;  but  he  made  sin 
to  consist  in  voluntary  actions.  We  must 
consent  in  Adam's  sin  and  deliberately  sin 
ourselves  before  the  sin  of  Adam  can  be 
imputed  to  us. 

Finally,  Edwards  brought  forward  the 
conception  that  virtue  consists  in  benev- 
olence. Virtue,  he  asserted,  is  moral 
beauty ;  it  belongs  preeminently  in  the  realm 
of  the  will.  More  concretely,  virtue  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  is  harmony  with  the 
universal  system  of  existence  of  which  he 
is  a  part.  And  since  there  can  be  no  such 
harmony  that  is  not  based  on  love,  virtue 
must  ultimately  rest  in  a  broad,  compre- 
hensive love  for  life  in  general,  or  in  disin- 
terested benevolence.  Actions  are  virtuous, 
therefore,  only  when  they  are  actuated  by 
the  motive  of  love. 

To  sum  up  briefly:     Edwards  revived  the 
idea  of  the  necessity  of  regeneration  to  a 
[179] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

true  Christian  experience,  opened  a  profound 
discussion  of  the  human  will,  defined  sin  in 
terms  of  voluntary  action,  and  made  virtue 
consist  in  unselfish  benevolence. 

Edwards  was  not  merely  a  clear  and  pro- 
found thinker,  a  man  of  masterful  intellect; 
he  had  also  the  gift  of  inspiring  men  to  fol- 
low out  his  ideas.  He  became  the  leader  of 
a  "school  of  ministers,"  who  carried  his 
teachings  on  to  still  farther  development. 

The  first  of  these  was  Joseph  Bellamy  of 
Bethlehem,  Connecticut.  He  served  this 
country  parish  for  fifty-two  years  and  his 
house  became  practically  a  theological  semi- 
nary. He  probably  trained  not  less  than 
sixty  young  men  for  the  ministry  and  upon 
each  of  them  he  impressed  his  theological 
doctrines.  A  brilliant  preacher,  he  was  also 
a  writer  and  debater  of  great  mental  power. 
He  was  the  strongest  early  champion  of  the 
''New  Divinity,"  as  the  teachings  of  Ed- 
wards and  their  repeated  expression  by  his 
pupils  were  generally  called,  and  won  a  com- 
plete victory  for  it  in  Connecticut.  In  1750 
he  published  ''True  Keligion  Delineated,"  a 
book  which  develops  Edwards'  idea  concern- 
ing man's  inability  to  repent  of  sin  and  to 
turn  to  God.  In  preaching  Bellamy  urged 
his  hearers  to  immediate  repentance  as  some- 
thing possible  for  each  of  them.  He  taught 
that  we  labor  under  a  condition  of  inability; 
but  this  inability,  he  averred,  consists  in  the 
[180] 


Christian    Theology 

lack  of  a  disposition  to  repent  rather  than 
in  the  impossibility  of  repentance,  and  we 
are  therefore  blameworthy  for  it. 

Bellamy  also  modified  the  teachings  of  the 
Old  Calvinists  concerning  the  atonement. 
He  did  not  regard  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
as  the  means  of  rendering  full  satisfaction 
to  an  offended  God,  but  held  rather  that  God 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  moral  governor  and 
that  the  atonement  should  be  understood  as 
a  penal  example. 

As  an  expounder  of  religious  and  theo- 
logical truth,  Bellamy  brought  his  doctrines 
to  bear  upon  the  conduct  of  the  people  in  a 
practical  way  through  his  preaching,  pro- 
foundly influencing  the  moral  and  religious 
life  of  his  generation.  Thus  his  doctrinal 
teachings  received  a  powerful  sanction  from 
their  practical  results  in  changing  the  daily 
lives  of  the  people  to  whom  he  ministered. 
Theology  was  seen  to  be  more  than  an  aca- 
demic interest,  and  the  discussion  of  the 
great  doctrines  which  the  ministers  preached 
became  the  staple  subject  of  conversation 
in  the  homes  of  the  people. 

Samuel  Hopkins  was  a  worthy  comrade  of 
Bellamy  in  the  development  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Theology.  He  was  not  so  great  a 
preacher  as  the  Connecticut  pastor  but  was 
a  controversialist  of  such  remarkable  power 
and  individuality  that  his  system  of  theology 
became  known  as  ''Hopkinsianism";  its  de- 
[181] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

fenders  were  proud  to  bear  the  name  *'Hop- 
kinsians."  Hopkins  was  a  neighbor  of  Ed- 
wards while  the  latter  lived  in  Stockbridge 
and  later  he  was  pastor  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island, 
for  thirty-three  years. 

In  1793  Hopkins  published  his  ' '  System  of 
Doctrines."  This  was  the  first  complete 
statement  of  theology  produced  in  New  Eng- 
land which  could  claim  anything  in  the  way 
of  originality.  Here  were  gathered  up  in 
full  form  the  modifications  of  the  Old  Cal- 
vinist  positions  which  had  been  made  by  the 
followers  of  Edwards  up  to  that  time. 

We  can  hardly  appreciate,  at  this  distance, 
the  intense  bitterness  with  which  the  new 
positions  were  opposed.  There  was  a  per- 
fect rain  of  argumentative  pamphlets  and 
controversial  sermons.  Men  who  were  com- 
mitted to  the  Old  Calvinism  saw  in  the  new 
ideas  concerning  conversion,  the  atonement, 
human  ability  to  repent  and  turn  to  God,  and 
the  nature  of  virtue,  tendencies  so  dangerous 
that  they  opposed  the  doctrines  even  to  the 
point  of  personal  animosity  of  the  bitterest 
sort.  However  meaningless  or  unessential 
these  doctrines  may  seem  to  us  now,  they  ap- 
peared tremendously  important  to  the  men 
who  engaged  in  the  fierce  battles  that  were 
waged  over  them.  On  both  sides  there  was 
grim  war  to  the  death. 

Hopkins  continued  the  peculiar  teachings 
[182] 


Christian    Theology 

of  Edwards  and  Bellamy,  and  gave  increas- 
ing importance  to  the  emphasis  which  they 
had  laid  on  man's  freedom.  He  also  based 
God's  elective  decrees  upon  the  divine  love 
and  taught  more  clearly  than  Edwards  or 
Bellamy  had  done  that  sin  consists  in  actual 
transgression.  The  theology  of  Hopkins 
made  a  definite  and  valuable  contribution  to 
the  growing  school  that  accepted  and  de- 
fended it  and  still  ranks  as  one  of  the  great 
works  in  the  history  of  religious  thinking. 

The  New  England  theology  did  not  arise 
from  the  meditations  of  secluded  scholars 
who  pondered  high  themes  of  divinity  in 
hours  of  leisure.  It  grew  rather  out  of  the 
practical  needs  of  parishes  and  developed 
under  the  stress  of  argument  and  opposition. 
The  changes,  for  example,  that  gradually 
took  place  in  the  existing  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  sprang  out  of  the  controversy  with 
universalism,  a  contention  which  developed 
after  1770.  The  heart  of  the  Universalist 
position  was  this:  Christ  died  for  all  men; 
his  merits  are  imputed  to  all  men ;  therefore 
all  men  are  to  be  saved.  This  position 
seemed  quite  untenable  to  the  New  England 
theologians.  They  had  already  gone  to  the 
point,  under  Bellamy's  leadership,  of  con- 
senting to  the  proposition  that  Christ  died 
for  all',  but  they  were  not  ready  to  admit 
that  the  merits  of  his  death  were  imputed 
to  all  and  hence  they  could  not  hold  the 
[183] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

universalist  doctrine  of  universal  salvation. 

Under  the  strain  of  controversy  resulting 
from  this  difference  of  belief  the  New  Eng- 
land theology  still  further  changed  its  con- 
ception of  the  atonement.  The  ruling  idea 
in  the  new  presentation  was  the  moral  gov- 
ernment of  God.  God  is  love,  asserted  the 
theologians,  and  his  government  is  grounded 
in  his  character.  Divine  love  puts  men  un- 
der moral  laws.  These  laws  demand  just 
penalties  for  disobedience;  God's  love  de- 
mands that  the  dignity  of  his  character,  re- 
flected in  his  laws,  shall  be  maintained.  The 
sufferings  of  Christ  are  a  vindication  of  the 
moral  government  of  God.  They  vindicate 
and  satisfy  God's  justice  and  love.  Christ's 
sufferings  do  not,  however,  satisfy  the  "dis- 
tributive justice  of  God,"  which  requires  the 
divine  punishment  of  man's  individual  acts 
of  transgression.  The  atonement  cannot  be 
understood  as  ''paying  man's  debts";  its 
merits  are  not  imputed  to  every  person. 
And  so  by  bringing  forward  and  developing 
the  theory  that  the  "moral  government"  of 
God  is  vindicated  by  the  atonement  the  de- 
fenders of  the  New  England  Theology  met 
the  Universalist  argument  and,  to  their  own 
satisfaction  at  least,  deprived  it  of  its  force. 

The  second  great  controversy  was  with  the 

Unitarians.     There  had  been   premonitions 

of  the  approaching  conflict  as  early  as  1756, 

when   Thomas   Emlyn   wrote   his   "Humble 

[184] 


Christian    Theology 

Inquiry  into  the  Scripture  Account  of  Jesus 
Christ."  But  it  was  not  until  the  time  of 
William  Ellery  Channing  that  the  Unitarian 
debate  became  intense.  Then  the  New  Eng- 
land theologians  were  definitely  challenged 
to  explain  how  there  can  be  three  Persons  in 
the  Godhead  and  to  account  for  the  two  na- 
tures in  Christ.  They  replied,  especially  in 
meeting  the  latter  point,  with  an  appeal  to 
the  Bible.  The  issue  of  the  conflict  was  the 
separation  of  the  two  Churches  and  their 
practical  activities,  rather  than  any  essential 
development  or  modification  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Theology  itself. 

A  change  was  introduced  into  the  '^  Sys- 
tem" of  Hopkins  by  Eev.  Nathanael  Em- 
mons of  Franklin,  Massachusetts.  Emmons 
was  one  of  the  strongest  personal  forces  in 
the  religious  life  of  New  England.  He  was 
pastor  at  Franklin  for  fifty-four  years  and 
during  this  time  he  trained  in  his  study  and 
parish  at  least  a  hundred  young  ministers. 
He  developed  the  theology  of  Hopkins  in 
the  line  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  in  con- 
version, declaring  that,  instead  of  being  re- 
ceptive and  wholly  passive  in  the  act  of  re- 
generation man  is  active.  ''Though  God 
does  work  in  men  to  repent,  to  believe,  and 
to  obey,  yet  God  does  not  repent,  nor  be- 
lieve, nor  obey,  but  the  persons  themselves 
on  whom  he  operates."  Emmons  laid  em- 
phasis also  upon  the  activity  of  the  will  in 
[185] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

acts  of  sin.  He  taught  that  moral  depravity 
does  not  consist  in  a  guilt  derived  from 
Adam  but  rather  in  the  "voluntary  exercises 
of  a  moral  agent. ' '  Therefore  he  concluded, 
sinners  must  be  urged  to  immediate  repent- 
ance and  a  holy  life  as  things  that  they  can 
attain  by  the  powers  of  their  o\vn  being. 

Another  stage  in  the  development  of  the 
New  England  Theology  was  reached  in  the 
work  of  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  whom  Professor  Foster  calls 
''the  most  original,  powerful,  and  widely  in- 
fluential mind  which  New  England  theology 
ever  possessed."  ^  His  life  was  spent  in  the 
heat  of  controversy  in  which  he  proved  him- 
self a  master  in  calm  debate  and  showed  a 
noble  spirit  in  heated  argument  and  conten- 
tion. Taylor  moved  far  from  the  concep- 
tion of  the  will  presented  by  Edwards.  The 
old  view  of  the  Calvinists — Edwards'  view 
— even  as  modified  by  Hopkins  and  Emmons, 
had  necessarily  paralyzed  all  human  action 
in  conversion.  The  preachers  especially  en- 
countered the  unhappy  results  of  this  doc- 
trine. Men  were  given  to  understand  that 
it  was  useless  for  them  to  try  to  do  anything 
for  themselves  in  repentance  and  faith  since 
they  labored  under  a  condition  of  complete 
volitional  inability.  Taylor  developed  a  new 
conception  of  the  will  as  free,  even  under  the 

1  Foster,  "Genetic  History  of  the  New  England  Theology," 
1907,  p.  246. 

[186] 


Christian    Theology 

pressure  of  the  most  powerful  motives — or 
''causes" — wMcli  may  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  it.  This  position  represented  a  violent 
break  from  the  view  held  by  Edwards.  ^  It 
exalted  the  government  of  God  as  based  in 
love  and  insisted  upon  the  ability  of  man  to 
choose  or  to  reject  the  will  of  God  as  his 
highest  good.  It  kept  true  to  the  facts  of 
human  experience  and  made  the  practical 
freedom  of  the  will  the  working  principle  in 
Christian  faith  and  life.  Taylor  put  the 
truth  bluntly:  "A  man  not  only  can  if  he 
will,  but  he  can  if  he  won't." 

Another  important  modifying  force  in  the 
New  England  Theology  was  the  work  of 
Horace  Bushnell  in  reference  to  the  atone- 
ment. With  all  the  energy  and  beauty  of 
his  clear  insight  and  his  consummate  power 
of  expression  he  presented  the  life  and  ex- 
ample of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  supreme  energy 
moving  upon  the  souls  of  men  for  their  sal- 
vation. The  glory  and  strength  of  the  per- 
sonality and  work  of  Jesus  become  supremely 
clear  and  potent  in  the  writings  of  Horace 
Bushnell. 

The  last  great  representative  of  the  New 
England  Theology  appropriately  bore  the 
name  of  its  founder.  Edwards  Amasa  Park 
of  Andover  Theological  Seminary  gave  the 
System  worthy  expression  in  his  lectures  and 
sermons,  combining  the  oratorical  powers  of 

1  See  page  178. 

[187] 


The    Pilg  r  im    Faith 

a  strong  preacher  with  the  depth  and  keen- 
ness of  a  masterful  thinker  and  an  inspiring 
teacher.  The  important  and  characteristic 
ideas  that  were  contributed  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Theology  in  its  long  development  through 
Bellamy,  Hopkins  and  others,  are  embodied 
in  the  theological  system  of  Park.  This  is 
too  copious  to  be  given  even  in  briefest  de- 
tail in  these  pages.  It  is  the  full  expression 
of  that  modification  of  the  Old  Calvinism 
which  John  Eobinson  defended  as  the  cham- 
pion of  the  decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  and 
represents  the  peculiar  gift  which  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  has  made  to  Christian  thought. 

Whatever  survival  in  changed  form  awaits 
the  New  England  Theology  if  it  ever  shall  be 
re-stated  in  the  language  of  the  twentieth 
century  cannot  be  forecasted  today;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  for  a  century  and 
a  half  the  influence  of  its  doctrines  upon  the 
moral  and .  spiritual  life  of  America  was  a 
mighty  and  vital  force  or  that  its  framers 
and  defenders  were  among  the  most  stalwart 
and  devoted  men  that  have  guarded  the 
highest  interests  of  the  people. 


[188] 


X 

THE  FAITH  IN  LITEEATURE 


X 

THE  FAITH  IN  LITERATURE 

THE  Pilgrim  Faith,  as  we  have  shown, 
has  exercised  a  commanding  influence 
in  education  and  general  culture.  Its 
leaders  have  been  men  of  refinement;  their 
taste  has  been  discriminating  and  their  ap- 
preciation of  the  best  in  literature  has  been 
discerning  and  intelligent.  But  Congrega- 
tionalists  have  been  authors  as  well  as 
readers;  and  the  purpose  of  the  present 
chapter  is  to  estimate  and  describe  the  gen- 
erous and  valuable  contribution  that  men  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  have  made  to  American  lit- 
erature. 

The  Pilgrim  Faith  was  born  during  an  era 
of  controversy  in  which  the  pamphlet  and  the 
printed  books  were  used  more  extensively 
than  in  any  similar  debate  as  the  instruments 
by  which  defenders  and  antagonists  of  the 
different  positions  made  their  charges  and 
countercharges.  Thousands  of  books  and 
pamphlets  were  printed  and  circulated  dur- 
ing the  years  when  the  Puritan  movement 
originated. 

The  Congregationalists  have  continued  the 
use  of  printer's  ink  throughout  their  life  in 
[191] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

America.  One  statistician,  Dr.  Henry  Mar- 
tyn  Dexter,  without  attempting  to  make  a 
complete  list  of  books  and  pamphlets  bear- 
ing on  the  subject  gives  in  his  ''Congrega- 
tionalism as  seen  in  its  Literature"  a  record 
of  7250  titles  of  books  bearing  on  the  Pilgrim 
Faith,  that  have  been  published  in  this  coun- 
try. 

It  must  be  admitted,  of  course,  that  such 
controversial  writing  is  not  a  very  high  type 
of  literature.  It  is  expected  to  be  of  only 
passing  value,  as  it  bears  upon  questions  of 
the  day.  Yet  we  are  far  from  the  truth  if 
we  hold  that  the  earnest  and  forceful  dis- 
cussions of  great  religious  themes  are  of  im- 
port merely  to  the  historian  and  deserve  to 
lie  forgotten  on  library  shelves;  for  they 
have  made  a  real  contribution  to  the  defini- 
tion of  priceless  truth  and  are  of  permanent 
worth  among  the  literary  treasures  of  the 
world. 

The  early  descriptive  and  historical  writers 
were  nearly  all  men  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 
Over  against  the  romancing  of  Capt.  John 
Smith  concerning  himself  and  Virginia  may 
be  set  with  genuine  pride  the  reliable  and 
earnest  writings  of  the  New  England  fathers. 
The  most  notable  of  these  works  is  the  his- 
tory "Of  Plimoth  Plantation,"  a  book  that 
is  now  preserved  in  the  Boston  Statehouse  as 
one  of  the  most  sacred  documents  concerning 
American  history.  It  contains  the  annals 
[192] 


JOHN    COTTON  JONATHAN    EDWARDS 

EDWARDS    A.    PARK 
HORACE    BUSHNELL  LEONARD    BACON 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

of  the  Plymouth  Colonists  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Puritan  movement  in  England 
to  the  year  1647.  This  priceless  manuscript, 
in  what  way  nobody  knows,  at  one  time  be- 
came a  part  of  the  Bishop  of  London's  li- 
brary in  Fulham  Palace,  but  in  1897  provi- 
sion was  made  for  its  return  to  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  in  the  custody  of  the 
American  ambassador,  Hon.  Thomas  F.  Bay- 
ard. It  was  a  memorable  scene  that  oc- 
curred in  Boston  when  the  book  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in 
the  presence  of  the  Legislature  and  a  com- 
pany of  distinguished  guests.  Especially 
gracious  had  been  the  action  of  the  Bishop 
of  London  in  restoring  the  manuscript  to 
''the  President  and  Citizens  of  the  United 
States  of  America"  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  ''of  the  greatest  interest,  importance  and 
value  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States  of 
America  inasmuch  as  it  is  one  of  the  earliest 
records  of  their  national  history."  Senator 
George  F.  Hoar,  one  of  the  speakers  of  the  oc- 
casion, called  the  finding  and  return  of  this 
manuscript  one  of  the  most  interesting  inci- 
dents in  history,  comparing  it  to  the  discovery 
of  the  ancient  regalia  of  Scotland  after  they 
had  been  lost  for  over  a  century.^  He  said 
also  that  the  book  should  be  valued  as  highly 
as  if  it  were  a  history  of  the  reign  of  King 

1  See  the  address  published  in  the  official  volume,  "The 
Bradford  History,"  1898,  p.  xliii. 

[193] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

Alfred  written  by  that  sovereign's  own  hand. 
The  State  of  Massachusetts  guards  the  man- 
uscript most  carefully  and  has  published  it 
in  a  worthy  form.  And  so,  after  its  long 
travels,  this  earliest  history  of  Plymouth 
Colony  set  down  by  the  hand  of  William 
Bradford  has  come  back  to  Boston  to  be 
cherished  as  one  of  the  most  precious  docu- 
ments in  the  possession  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. 

Bradford  was  only  one  of  the  early  writers. 
Edward  Winslow,  John  Winthrop,  and  Na- 
thaniel Morton  made  valuable  contributions 
to  the  sources  of  New  England  history.  The 
diaries  of  Samuel  Sewall,  ^'the  Puritan 
Pepys,"  are  fascinating  in  the  pictures  which 
they  give  of  the  man  and  of  the  times  in 
which  he  lived  (1662-1730).  Thomas  Prince 
(1687-1758)  gathered  together  a  library  of 
books  and  manuscripts  on  the  history  of  New 
England  and  using  these  as  sources  wrote 
his  ''Annals,"  which  will  always  be  one  of 
the  most  valuable  contributions  to  early 
American  history.  Thus  the  leaders  in  New 
England,  the  strong  men  who  were  thoroughly 
educated  and  intellectually  alert,  made  the 
first  great  contribution  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith   to    American   literature. 

No  report  of  the  literary  achievements  of 

Congregationalists    in    the    United    States 

would  be   complete  that  included  no  more 

than  a  scanty  reference  to  the  work  of  the 

[194] 


The    Faith   in    Literature 

''prodigious"  Cotton  Mather.  He  was  born 
of  the  "clerical  aristocracy  of  New  Eng- 
land;" Ms  father  was  Eev.  Increase  Mather 
and  his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Rev.  John 
Cotton.  Cotton  Mather  is  said  to  have  writ- 
ten nearly  four  hundred  books,  great  and 
small.  Among  them  is  the  "Magnalia 
Christi  Americana,"  a  ponderous  work  in 
two  bulky  volumes,  which  was  published  in 
1702.  It  treats  of  the  founding  of  the  col- 
onies in  New  England,  reviews  the  lives  of 
the  early  leaders,  traces  the  origin  of  Har- 
vard College,  and  contains  a  multitude  of 
miscellaneous  facts,  not  all  of  them  accurate 
and  many  emphasized  beyond  all  true  pro- 
portion; but  in  spite  of  this  lack  of  strictly 
scientific  qualities  the  "Magnalia"  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  literary  remains  of  the 
Colonial  Period.  Anyone  who  wishes  to 
spend  a  delightful  hour  and  get  a  taste  of  a 
most  picturesque  character  should  read  ex- 
tracts from  the  "Magnalia,"  either  from  the 
volumes  themselves  or  from  published  selec- 
tions. 

The  first  entire  book  ever  printed  in 
America  was  the  work  of  Congregationalists. 
Richard  Mather,  Thomas  Welde,  and  John 
Eliot  supervised  the  preparation  of  the  "Bay 
Psalm  Book,"  and  Stephen  Daye  printed  it 
at  Cambridge  in  1640.  It  rendered  the 
Psalms  in  a  sort  of  metrical  form  for  sing- 
ing. The  meter  and  the  rhymes  which  it  con- 
[195] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

tains  alike  appear  atrocious  when  judged  by 
the  standards  of  true  poetry ;  their  distinctly 
inartistic  character  was  apparently  recog- 
nized by  the  authors  who  say  in  the  preface : 
*'If  therefore  the  verses  are  not  always  so 
smooth  and  elegant  as  some  may  desire  or 
expect,  let  them  consider  that  God's  altar 
needs  not  our  polishings.  For  we  have  at- 
tended fidelity  rather  than  poetry  in  trans- 
lating the  Hebrew  words  into  English 
language  and  David's  poetry  into  English 
meter." 

In  its  quaint  spelling  and  peculiar  diction 
a  single  stanza  will  illustrate  the  unique  char- 
acter of  the  material  in  the  Bay  Psalm  Book. 

"The  heavens  doe  declare 
the  majesty  of  God: 
Also  the  firmament  shews  forth 
his  handy-work   abroad. 
Day  speaks  to  day,  knowledge 
night  hath  to  night  declar'd. 
There  neither  speaeh  nor  language  is, 
where  their  voyce  is  not  heard."  i 

The  contributions  made  by  writers  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  to  Christian  hymnology  are 
many.  Rev.  Ray  Palmer  was  the  author  of 
''My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee,"  ''Jesus,  these 
eyes  have  never  seen  that  radiant  form  of 
Thine,"    "Come,    Jesus,    Redeemer,"    and 

1  other  examples  may  be  found  in  Stedman  and  Hutch- 
inson, "Library  of  American  Literature,"  1888,  Vol.  1,  p. 
211  ff. 

[  196  ] 


S.    PARKES    CADMAX  NEWELL    DWIGHT    HILLIS 

FRANK    W.    GUNSAULUS 
CHARLES    E.    JEFFERSON  CHARLES    R.    BROWN 


The    Faith   in    Literature 

other  widely-used  hymns ;  he  also  translated 
from  the  Latin  "Come,  Holy  Ghost,  in  love." 
Timothy  Dwight  wrote  ' '  I  love  thy  kingdom, 
Lord. "  "0  God,  beneath  thy  guiding  hand, ' ' 
which  has  been  sung  on  many  patriotic  oc- 
casions since  it  was  written,  came  from  the 
pen  of  Leonard  Bacon.  To  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  we  are  indebted  for  two  hymns  which 
are  constantly  growing  in  use  and  which  ex- 
press the  deeper  moods  of  the  soul  with  ex- 
quisite grace ;  they  are,  '■ '  Still,  still  with  Thee 
when  purple  morning  breaketh"  and  "When 
winds  are  raging  o'er  the  upper  ocean.'* 
Washington  Gladden  contributed  a  hymn 
which  has  already  come  into  general  use, ' '  0 
Master,  let  me  walk  with  Thee." 

There  have  been  many  compilers  of  hymn 
books  and  many  students  of  church  music 
among  the  men  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  In 
1799,  Dr.  Strong,  pastor  of  the  First  Church 
in  Hartford,  published  the  first  distinctly 
American  hymn  book.  Nettleton,  the  evan- 
gelist, set  the  example  that  has  been  followed 
so  successfully  in  the  publication  of  the 
Moody  and  Sankey  Gospel  Hymns  and  their 
successors  when  he  issued  "Village  Hymns" 
in  1824.  Lowell  Mason,  "the  father  of 
American  church  music,"  was  a  Congre- 
gationalist.  In  1855  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
published  the  "Plymouth  Collection." 
Later  Professors  Park  and  Phelps  issued  the 
"Sabbath  Hymn  Book";  a  group  of  An- 
[197] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

dover  professors  compiled  "Hymns  of  the 
Faith"  and  Lyman  Abbott  published  the 
** Plymouth  Hymnal."^  Eecently  Rev.  Am- 
brose W.  Vernon  in  collaboration  with  Rev. 
Henry  Sloan  CofSn,  has  edited  ''Hymns  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God";  Rev.  Charles  H. 
Richards  has  issued  ''Songs  of  the  Christian 
Life,"  Rev.  W.  J.  Dawson  has  compiled 
"The  American  Hymnal,"  and  the  Pilgrim 
Press  has  issued  "The  Pilgrim  Hymnal." 
Among  the  most  influential  writers  on  church 
music  is  Prof.  Waldo  S.  Pratt  of  Hartford 
Theological  Seminary. 

Another  distinct  contribution  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  to  the  literary  life  of  America 
has  been  made  through  the  magazines  and 
religious  newspapers  that  have  been  founded 
and  maintained  by  Congregationalists.  The 
interests  behind  these  enterprises  have  been 
sometimes  missionary,  sometimes  contro- 
versial, and  sometimes  devotional. 

When  the  missionary  movement  westward 
began,  in  1800,  the  "Connecticut  Evangeli- 
cal Magazine"  was  founded  as  a  medium  for 
furnishing  news  and  creating  interest  con- 
cerning the  work  in  the  new  country.  Two 
years  later  the  "Massachusetts  Missionary 
Magazine"  was  begun.  This  has  continued 
in  different  forms,  and  has  finally  become 
"The  Missionary  Herald,"  which  is  recog- 
nized internationally  today  as   one   of  the 

1  Dunning,  "Congregationalists  in  America,"  p.  485. 

[  198  ] 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

ablest  foreign  missionary  magazines  pub- 
lished. Its  influence  upon  the  life  of  the 
churches  has  constantly  increased  their 
knowledge  of  world-wide  Christian  work  and 
inspired  fresh  interest  in  the  conquest  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

There  are  now  three  weekly  religious  news- 
papers that  are  maintained  by  the  Pilgrim 
Faith.  ''The  Congregationalist,"  ''The  Ad- 
vance," and  "The  Pacific."  In  their  high 
standard  of  literary  work  these  periodicals 
rank  among  the  best  in  the  country. 

The  Pilgrim  Faith  has  been  instrumental 
in  starting  in  religious  journalism  movements 
other  and  greater  than  those  which  strictly 
denominational  records  show.  "The  Inde- 
pendent" began  under  Congregational  lead- 
ership in  1848.  "The  Christian  Union," 
founded  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  1869, 
became  "The  Outlook."  Both  of  these  pub- 
lications, which  exert  a  profound  influence 
upon  the  religious  life  of  America,  have  been 
largely  under  Congregational  direction,  al- 
though not  under  church  control,  and  lead- 
ers of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  have  been  their 
editors. 

When  we  turn  to  the  volumes  of  sermons 
which  have  been  published  by  preachers  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith,  we  find  literature  of  a 
high  type.  In  Colonial  days  it  was  custom- 
ary to  print  the  election  sermons  of  the  min- 
isters, and  as  we  have  noticed  many  examples 
[199] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

of  early  controversial  preaching  also  were 
put  into  type.  The  discourses  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  were  published  and  read  exten- 
sively even  in  Great  Britain.  The  long  pe- 
riod of  theological  discussion  after  1850  gave 
additional  zest  to  publication. 

The  sermons  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  were 
regularly  published  and  their  influence  upon 
the  religious  life  of  America  was  profound. 
The  freshness  of  their  thought,  the  beauty 
of  their  style,  and  the  earnest  way  in  which 
they  grappled  with  the  vital  issues  of  the 
generation  to  which  they  were  preached 
gave  them  great  influence  and  gained  for 
them  a  wide  reading. 

The  sermons  of  Horace  Bushnell  also  form 
a  permanent  part  of  the  literary  wealth  of 
America.  The  single  volume  entitled  ''Ser- 
mons for  the  New  Life"  contains  a  group  of 
the  greatest  discourses  ever  given  in  the 
American  pulpit.  ''Every  Man's  Life  a 
Plan  of  God"  and  "Unconscious  Influence" 
will  never  lose  their  power,  for  they  are  con- 
cerned with  the  enduring  and  fundamental 
needs  and  problems  of  the  human  soul. 

The  question  "Who  reads  an  old  sermon!" 
is  answered  by  the  constant  publication  of 
the  words  of  great  preachers  and  by  the  con- 
tinued use  of  the  printed  discourses  of  those 
prophets  who  have  spoken  most  clearly  in 
the  name  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 

In  devotional  writing  the  work  of  religious 
[  200  ] 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

authors  comes  as  close  to  the  nature  of  pure 
literature  as  it  does  anywhere  in  the  realm 
of  production.  Scientific  purpose  is  not  pre- 
eminent in  the  preparation  of  books  that  deal 
with  the  spiritual  life,  the  aim  of  their 
writers  being  to  furnish  an  interpretation  of 
the  soul's  experience  that  shall  serve  to  make 
clear  the  activities  of  the  spirit  and  to  dis- 
play the  beauty  of  religious  truth. 

One  of  the  classics  in  this  department  of 
religious  literature  is  Austin  Phelps'  "The 
Still  Hour."  Professor  Phelps  was  himself 
a  man  of  deep  insight  and  rich  spiritual  life 
and  the  equality  of  his  own  soul  is  reflected 
in  this  little  book,  written  in  1859,  which  has 
proved  useful  ever  since  its  publication  in 
Christian  culture  and  discipline. 

A  more  profound  study  of  the  human  soul 
came  from  the  pen  of  Jonathan  Edwards  in 
1746  under  the  title,  "A  Treatise  Concerning 
Religious  Affections."  This  book  is  gen- 
erally accepted  as  one  of  the  most  perfect 
interpretations  of  Christian  experience  that 
we  possess.  Professor  Allen  has  said  con- 
cerning it :  "  It  is  a  work  which  will  not  suf- 
fer by  comparison  with  the  work  of  great 
teachers  in  theology,  whether  ancient  or  mod- 
ern. It  fulfills  the  condition  of  a  good  book 
as  Milton  has  defined  it — 'the  precious  life- 
blood  of  a  master  spirit.'  " 

In  Chapter  IX  we  have  traced  the  history 
of  the  theological  contribution  which  has  been 
[201] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

made  to  the  thought  of  the  world  by  the  Pil- 
grim Faith.  Incidentally  the  many  books  on 
theology  which  were  issued  during  the  dis- 
cussion have  been  touched  upon.  It  ought 
to  be  noted  here,  however,  that  these  works 
have  a  literary  as  well  as  a  purely  contro- 
versial value  and  that  they  are  a  part  of  our 
permanent  and  cherished  heritage.  While 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  the  greatest  indi- 
vidual writer  upon  the  New  England  Theol- 
ogy, his  books  are  only  a  part  of  the  entire 
literary  by-product  of  the  doctrinal  discus- 
sions of  his  time.  His  great  treatise  en- 
titled ''A  Careful  and  Strict  Inquiry  into 
the  Prevailing  Notions  of  the  Freedom  of  the 
Will"  appeared  in  1754.  Professor  Allen 
says  concerning  it: 

'*It  is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  a  high 
place  must  be  assigned  in  literature  to  Ed- 
wards on  the  Will.  Like  Butler's  Analogy, 
it  belongs  among  the  few  great  books  in  Eng- 
lish Theology."  ^ 

When  recalling  the  literary  achievements 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith,  one  thinks  almost  in- 
stantly of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin."  This  famous  story  came 
from  the  heart  of  Congregationalism  and  in 
it  is  to  be  found  an  expression  of  those  great 
convictions  concerning  liberty  and  brother- 
hood which  have  lain  deep  in  the  souls  of 
the  men  and  women  who  have  been  the  lovers 

1  Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  1889,  p.  287. 

[202] 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

and  defenders  of  human  freedom  from 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Waiving  as  unessential  all  questions  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  the  situation  presented  in  the 
book  and  as  to  the  literary  value  of  the  tale 
itself,  we  can  assert  confidently  that  no  other 
single  volume  ever  did  so  much  to  stir  the 
generation  in  which  it  was  written  as  did  the 
story  of  Uncle  Tom.  It  was  read  in  the 
North  and  in  the  South.  It  aroused  discus- 
sion, provoked  antagonism,  and  stirred  the 
deep  primal  sense  of  justice  and  fraternity 
in  the  souls  of  men.  It  was  translated  into 
at  least  twenty  languages  and  is  still  sold. 
Professor  Charles  F.  Eichardson  calls  it 
"that  novel  which  exerted  a  moral  force  in 
politics  unequalled  in  the  history  of  English 
fiction."^  And  he  says  also:  "The  aboli- 
tion of  tribal  relations  in  Christ  was  the 
broad  theme  of  a  Christian  woman;  and  in 
treating  it  she  produced  an  art-result  of  such 
inherent  merit  that  the  hand  helped  the  soul 
as  much  as  the  soul  the  hand." 

Other  novelists  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  have 
given  the  world  books  that  have  endured, 
and  among  them  George  W.  Cable  and  Eliza- 
beth Stuart  Phelps  Ward  rank  high.  Ameri- 
can poetry  also  has  been  enriched  by  our 
writers.  But  the  greatest  work  which  Con- 
gregational authors  have  done  has  been  ac- 
complished in  the  fields  of  theology,  philol- 

1  "American  Literature,"  Vol.  II,  1889,  pp.  410  and  412. 
[203] 


The   Pilgrim    F aith 

ogy,  translation,  and  original  writing  in 
foreign  tongues  on  the  mission  frontier. 

Measured  by  the  scale  of  dignity  and  liter- 
ary worth  the  work  of  the  men  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  who  have  turned  the  English  of  the 
Scriptures  into  foreign  tongues  towers  high. 
Often  they  have  been  compelled  to  reduce  a 
language  to  writing  and  to  develop  its  gram- 
mar before  translation  or  composition  has 
been  possible.  Through  years  of  unremitted 
toil,  working  under  difficulties  that  have 
seemed  too  great  for  human  strength,  often 
continuing  their  efforts  without  slacking 
their  diligence  in  their  many  immediate  du- 
ties, these  men  have  labored  at  their  arduous 
literary  task.  Caesar  wrote  his  "Commen- 
taries" in  the  heat  of  his  military  cam- 
paigns; and  far  too  frequently  soldiers  of 
the  cause  of  Christ  have  been  able  to  devote 
to  their  important  work  of  translation  only 
hurried  moments  snatched  from  their  un- 
ceasing struggle  to  set  up  their  Captain's 
banner  in  the  lands  where  they  have  chosen 
to  pour  out  their  lives. 

First  in  the  list  of  missionary-lexicog- 
raphers comes  John  Eliot.  When  he  began 
his  translation  of  the  Word  of  Life  into  the 
many-syllabled  tongue  of  the  Algonquins  he 
had  at  his  command  no  facilities  for  printing 
and  publishing  the  work  should  he  be  able  to 
finish  it,  but  he  persisted  with  faith  that  if 
God  would  give  him  strength  to  complete  the 
[204] 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

task  lie  would  provide  also  the  means  of  pub- 
lication. And  Eliot's  determination  and 
trustful  confidence  were  rewarded;  for  in 
1661  he  had  the  joy  of  seeing  ^'Wuskee  Wut- 
testamentum  Nul-Lordunum  Jesus  Christ 
Nuppoquohwussuaerneumun"  appear  in 
print.  Some  conception  of  the  difficulty  of 
his  undertaking  may  be  gained  from  this  un- 
wieldy caption,  which  was  the  title  of  the 
Algonquin  New  Testament.  In  1663  Eliot 
saw  the  entire  Bible  in  print  in  the  language 
of  the  Indians. 

The  next  notable  work  was  that  of  Gordon 
Hall,  who  during  his  brief  period  of  pioneer 
labor  among  the  Mahratta  people  in  India 
was  able  to  complete  a  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  in  their  tongue. 

In  1830  there  was  sent  to  the  mission  sta- 
tion at  Canton,  China,  a  printing  outfit,  the 
gift  of  the  Bleeker  Street  Church  of  New 
York.  Two  years  later  the  arrival  of  S. 
Wells  Williams  furnished  an  exceptionally 
qualified  printer  and  author,  and  for  more 
than  a  decade  thereafter  there  poured  from 
his  pen  a  stream  of  Christian  literature  writ- 
ten in  the  Chinese.  His  works  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  natives  were  printed  upon  the 
mission  press  and  were  widely  circulated. 

A  little  later,  in  1859,  Hiram  Bingham,  Jr., 

began  his  translation  of  the  Bible  in  Gilber- 

tese,  the  language  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 

Gilbert    Islands.     Sickness    forced    him    to 

[205] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

leave  these  Islands  with,  the  work  uncom- 
pleted and  to  return  to  Hawaii,  but  this 
change  in  fortune  and  residence  set  him  free 
to  devote  himself  more  fully  to  the  task  which 
he  had  begun  when  on  the  mission  field.  In 
1890  the  first  copy  of  the  Scriptures  in  Gil- 
bertese  appeared  in  printed  form,  and  in 
1908  Capt.  Walkup  carried  with  him  to  the 
jubilee  in  the  Islands  Bingham's  last  great 
work,  a  Gilbertese  dictionary. 

Soon  after  Lewis  Grout  began  his  work 
among  the  Zulus  he  discovered  that  their 
fondness  for  oratory  could  be  used  to  ad- 
vantage in  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  A  Zulu 
church  is  not  a  mere  group  of  listeners ;  the 
hearers  expect  to  go  out  and  repeat  the  mes- 
sage which  has  been  spoken.  Grout,  there- 
fore, labored  to  reduce  their  language  to  in- 
telligible rhetorical  form,  and  his  Zulu  gram- 
mar is  still  used  as  a  textbook  in  schools  that 
train  native  evangelists  in  South  Africa. 

In  1823  William  Goodell,  a  scholarly  and 
brilliant  linguist,  went  to  Beirut,  Syria.  His 
great  life  work,  a  translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures from  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek 
into  the  Armeno-Turkish  language,  is  a 
monument  to  his  rare  ability  and  his  patient, 
painstaking  industry.  His  task  was  carried 
on  under  great  difficulty.  On  one  occasion 
his  house  was  plundered,  and  for  more  than 
two  years  he  never  closed  his  eyes  without 
first  planning  how  he  might  escape  if  at- 
[206] 


The   Faith   in   Literature 

tacked  during  the  night.  Frequently  part  of 
his  days  were  spent  in  searching  for  thickets 
and  caves  where  his  few  converts  could  flee 
for  safety  should  a  raid  upon  them  be 
started. 

King  of  the  translators  who  have  shed 
glory  on  the  records  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
was  Elias  Riggs,  a  linguist  of  world-wide 
fame.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  had  written 
a  grammar  of  Arabic,  and  had  also  mastered 
Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Syriac,  and  Chaldee. 
After  establishing  himself  at  Smyrna,  Tur- 
key, he  spent  seven  years  in  preparing  an 
edition  of  the  Bible  in  modern  Armenian. 
His  next  great  work  was  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  Bulgarian,  and  follow- 
ing this  he  rendered  the  Book  of  books  into 
the  Turkish  language.  The  Bibles  used  to- 
day by  the  four  leading  races  of  the  Turkish 
Empire  are  largely  the  work  of  this  inde- 
fatigable toiler.  In  making  this  statement 
we  consider  as  one  of  the  "Bibles"  the  Mod- 
em G-reek  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Chaldee  portion  of  which — Ezra  and  Daniel 
— was  revised  by  Dr.  Riggs.  Besides  apply- 
ing his  mighty  mental  powers  to  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  he  has  written  sweet, 
tender  hymns  in  Greek,  Armenian,  Bulga- 
rian and  Turkish,  and  they  have  become  a 
lasting  contribution  to  the  devotional  life  of 
the  people  of  the  East. 

Thus  throughout  the  mission  field  we  find 
[207] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

the  permanent  and  gratifying  results  of  the 
literary  labors  of  the  missionaries.  As  a 
recent  writer  says : 

"If  it  were  possible  to  bring  together  in 
one  place  samples  of  all  the  grammars,  dic- 
tionaries, hymn-books.  Bibles,  school-books, 
and  works  of  general  literature  of  every  kind 
and  from  all  parts  of  the  world  which  have 
been  written  or  translated  during  the  last 
century  by  missionaries  or  under  their  su- 
pervision, it  would  make  one  of  the  most  com- 
plete exhibits  of  the  languages  and  dialects 
spoken  by  more  than  five-sixths  of  the  people 
of  the  world  that  could  be  produced. ' '  ^ 

Missionary  records  show  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  American  Board  have  borne 
a  leading  part  in  the  production  of  the  many 
kinds  of  publications  to  which  Dr.  Barton 
refers.  The  denomination  that  converts  and 
saves  is  also  the  denomination  that  creates 
a  formal  language  and  furnishes  a  body  of 
literature  for  the  people  to  whom  it  carries 
the  message  of  life  and  love. 

1  Barton,  "Human  Progress  through  Missions,"  1912, 
p.  30. 


[208] 


XI 

THE  FAITH  AND  ITS  LEADEES 


XI 

THE  FAITH  AND  ITS  LEADERS 

THE  question  whether  a  leader  creates  a 
great  popular  movement  or  the  move- 
ment produces  the  leader  is  often  discussed 
but  can  never  be  definitely  and  satisfactorily 
settled.  For  leadership  and  human  progress 
are  inherently  and  inextricably  related. 
Men  with  ideals  create  institutions  which  will 
express  them,  and  ideals  moving  among  the 
people  lay  hold  on  individuals,  evoke  their 
powers,  and  give  birth  to  gifts  of  leadership. 
So  in  the  history  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  there 
has  been  constant  action  and  reaction  be- 
tween the  strong  persons  who  have  emerged 
as  leaders  and  the  inspiring  ideals  to  which 
the  leaders  have  responded. 

It  is  impossible  to  condense  into  the  com- 
pass of  a  brief  chapter  any  complete  and  ade- 
quate account  of  the  leaders  of  the  Faith, 
In  dealing  with  the  various  movements  which 
we  have  passed  in  review,  we  have  given  con- 
siderable attention  to  their  personal  leader- 
ship. Here  we  shall  supplement  briefly  this 
record.  And  in  doing  this  we  deem  it  wise, 
even  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  to  bring  into 
[211] 


The   Pilgrim   F aith 

intimate  relationship  with  some  of  the  deeds 
reported  in  previous  chapters,  the  men  who 
performed  them. 

Foremost  among  the  laymen  of  the  Pil- 
grim Faith  stands  William  Bradford.  He 
was  not  a  minister,  and  apparently  never 
even  held  an  office  in  the  Church,  but  to  him 
more  than  to  any  other  layman  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  owes  the  proud  place  that  it  holds  in 
the  development  of  American  principles  and 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 

In  the  little  hamlet  of  Austerfield,  Eng- 
land, on  March  19,  1590,  Bradford  was  bap- 
tized. Life  was  anything  but  easy  to  a  lad 
of  that  day  in  an  English  farming  commu- 
nity. There  was  little  or  no  communication 
with  the  outside  world  and  what  scant  news 
filtered  through  came  probably  by  the  way 
of  Postmaster  Brewster's  office  at  Scrooby 
Manor,  not  far  distant  from  Austerfield. 
And  thither  we  find  Bradford  going  as  a  boy 
of  twelve  or  fourteen  to  meet  with  the  little 
company  who  gathered  under  Brewster's 
roof  to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 

The  heart  of  the  lad  was  touched  by  the 
preaching  of  one  of  the  men  who  had  been 
brought  to  the  district  through  the  efforts 
and  the  liberal  purse  of  Brewster.  He  was 
led  to  read  and  study  his  Bible  and  became 
eager  for  deeper  spiritual  experien.ces. 
About  1604  John  E-obinson  joined  the 
Scrooby  congregation.  Under  the  influence 
[212] 


LYAIAN    ABBOTT  HENRY    M.    DEXTER 

GEORGE    A.    GORDON 
GEORGE    P.    FISHER  NEWMAN    SMYTH 


The   Faith    and   Its   Leaders 

of  this  earnest,  patient,  kindly,  learned  man, 
both  the  soul  and  the  intellect  of  young  Brad- 
ford grew.  There  was  created  in  his  heart 
a  thirst  for  learning  that  led  him,  although 
denied  the  opportunity  for  academic  school- 
ing, to  devote  himself  diligently  to  the  mas- 
tery of  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew. 

At  seventeen  Bradford  found  himself  in 
the  Boston  jail,  together  with  other  Scrooby 
Separatists,  for  attempting  to  leave  the 
country  without  permission  from  the  King. 
His  youth  procured  for  him  an  earlier  re- 
lease than  was  granted  most  of  his  compan- 
ions, and  in  1608,  with  a  few  associates,  he 
reached  Amsterdam. 

In  a  strange  land,  without  resources,  Brad- 
ford began  the  battle  for  existence,  and 
learned  the  silkweaver's  trade,  which  pro- 
vided him  with  a  means  of  livelihood.  The 
years  of  exile  were  undoubtedly  a  period  of 
profitable  preparation  for  his  work  in  the 
new  world  to  which  he  went  in  the  Mayflower. 
His  coming  to  America  was  saddened  by  the 
drowning  of  his  wife  while  the  Mayflower 
swung  at  anchor  in  Cape  Cod  harbor. 

A  year  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth,  Gov- 
ernor John  Carver  died  and  the  little  com- 
munity unanimously  chose  William  Bradford 
as  its  head.  The  office  of  governor  then  in- 
cluded the  duties  of  executive,  legislative, 
and  judicial  leadership.  For  a  period  of 
thirty-six  years  Bradford  was  the  man  to 
[213] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

whom  the  Colony  looked  for  guidance  in  its 
difficult  and  ofttimes  hazardous  career.  At 
thirty-one  of  the  annual  elections  he  was 
chosen  governor,  and  he  would  have  been 
thus  elected  every  year  during  a  longer 
period  had  he  not  insisted  that  someone  else 
should  occupy  the  position.  His  services 
were  given  to  the  Colony  without  salary  and 
with  none  of  the  pomp  and  dignity  that  we 
usually  associate  with  the  rank  of  governor. 
His  conduct  in  office  was  in  sharp  contrast 
with  the  boastful  show  of  many  of  the  royal 
representatives  and  illustrated  well  the  man- 
ner in  which  a  Christian  servant  of  the  people 
bears  himself  in  a  Christian  state.  Brad- 
ford's skill  as  a  diplomat  was  of  a  high 
order,  as  is  shown  in  his  judicious  handling 
of  the  relations  between  Plymouth  Colony 
and  the  Puritan  enterprises  under  Endicott's 
leadership.  When  the  church  at  Salem  was 
formed,  Bradford  and  a  few  companions 
from  Plymouth  went  to  that  town  in  one  of 
the  little  boats  belonging  to  the  Colony  and 
extended  the  *' right  hand  of  fellowship" 
to  the  newly-gathered  congregation.  This 
broad-minded  and  brotherly  act  marks  the 
beginning  of  those  relations  of  mutual  help- 
fulness and  fellowship  that  have  gone  hand 
in  hand  with  the  principle  of  individual  in- 
dependence among  Congregational  churches. 
In  the  press  of  his  manifold  public  duties 
Bradford  found  time  to  set  down  that  record 
[214] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

of  the  planting  and  growth  of  the  Colony  to 
which  we  have  referred  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter. 

The  permanent  impression  which  he  made 
upon  his  surviving  companions  was  one  of 
great  strength  and  sweetness  of  spirit.  Wil- 
liam Bradford  represents  the  finest  type  we 
have  of  the  high-minded  and  devoted  Chris- 
tian layman.  He  died  May  9,  1657,  and  was 
laid  to  rest  on  the  wind-swept  hill  that  rises 
back  of  the  little  village;  laid  to  rest  in 
silence,  with  no  prayer,  hymn  or  sermon,  as 
was  the  custom  of  the  colony.  He  left  a 
great  task  to  be  carried  out  by  the  men  who 
came  after  him,  but  he  left  them  also  a  noble 
example  of  service  to  Christ  in  state  and 
church. 

"Mather  is  named  Cotton  Mather.  What 
a  name !  .  .  .  I  should  have  said  what  names ! 
I  shall  say  nothing  of  his  reverend  father, 
since  I  dare  not  praise  him  to  his  face,  but 
should  this  youth  resemble  his  venerable 
grandfathers,  John  Cotton  and  Richard 
Mather,  in  piety,  learning,  elegance  of  mind, 
solid  judgment,  prudence  and  wisdom,  he 
will  bear  away  the  palm." 

With  these  words,  or  rather  in  the  Latin 
words  which  represent  these  thoughts.  Presi- 
dent Oakes  of  Harvard  addressed  the  as- 
sembly at  which  Cotton  Mather,  then  sixteen 
years  old,  received  his  first  degree.  In  the 
years  that  followed  the  young  man  repro- 
[215] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

duced  in  his  own  life  many  of  those  honorable 
ancestral  qualities  to  which  the  speaker  re- 
ferred. 

Cotton  Mather  was  born  February  12, 
1663.  He  was  precocious;  at  the  age  of 
seven  he  was  writing  prayers  and  compelling 
his  schoolmates  to  pray  them.  The  natu- 
ral sensitiveness  of  his  disposition  was  ag- 
gravated by  an  impediment  in  his  speech, 
and  his  tendency  to  melancholy  was  by  no 
means  lessened  by  his  firm  belief  and  deep 
interest  in  witchcraft. 

Believing  that  the  impediment  in  his 
speech  unfitted  him  for  the  ministry,  Mather 
studied  medicine ;  but  later,  on  the  advice  of 
a  friend,  he  ' '  obliged  himself  to  a  dilated  de- 
liberation in  speaking,"  and  this  enabled 
him,  after  some  practice,  to  make  a  public 
address.  Eeassured  by  this  achievement  he 
gave  himself  to  the  study  of  theology  and 
on  May  13,  1684,  he  was  ordained  as  the  col- 
league of  his  father,  Eev.  Increase  Mather, 
pastor  of  the  North  Church  in  Boston.  Pre- 
viously the  young  theologue  had  declined  a 
call  from  the  New  Haven  church;  and 
throughout  his  life  his  ministerial  work  was 
done  in  the  Boston  pastorate. 

Cotton  Mather  was  a  prodigious  worker. 
He  was  master  of  seven  languages,  and  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Chauncy  was  the  greatest 
reader  of  his  time.  See  him  in  his  study  in 
the  early  hours  of  the  morning  commencing 
[216] 


The   Faith    and   Its   Leaders 

the  day  by  reading  a  chapter  from  the  Old 
Testament  in  Hebrew,  and  another  in 
French,  a  chapter  from  the  New  Testament 
in  Greek  and  perhaps,  by  way  of  variety,  an- 
other in  Spanish  or  Iroquois.  He  seemed  to 
remember  everything  he  read,  and  he  wrote 
with  the  same  ease  and  rapidity  with  which 
he  absorbed  the  writings  of  others.  His 
publications  reached  the  total  of  three  hun- 
dred eighty-two.  Many  of  them,  of  course, 
consisted  of  tracts  and  single  sermons,  but 
others  were  of  considerable  length.  His 
^'Magnalia  Christi  Americana"  was  his 
greatest  work  and  included  two  volumes  filled 
with  valuable  information  and  shot  through 
with  puerilities  and  strange  conceits  which 
distinguish  it  in  a  unique  and  peculiar  way 
from  all  other  books  in  the  language. 

The  thinking  of  Mather  was  a  strange 
blend  of  the  mediaeval  and  the  modern.  We 
find  him,  haunted  by  visitations  from  the 
demon  world,  writing  with  pious  care  of  the 
subtleties  of  the  black  art,  and  joining  with 
other  Boston  ministers  in  urging  the  execu- 
tion of  those  accused  of  having  dealings  with 
witchcraft.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  the 
apostle  of  inoculation  for  smallpox  when 
medical  men  opposed  it ;  he  advocated  higher 
education  for  women  and  established  a  school 
in  Boston  for  the  education  of  slaves ;  in  his 
"Essay  to  do  Good"  we  discover  a  pro- 
phetic conception  of  modern  Christian  benefi- 
[217] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

cence  and  social  service;  and  we  find  him 
among  the  pioneers  of  the  present  day  tem- 
perance movement. 

Chandler  Bobbins  calls  vanity  the  most 
prominent  of  Mather's  faults;  but  this  un- 
fortunate trait,  like  any  other  weakness  of 
character  that  he  may  have  possessed,  seems 
to  have  been  quickly  obscured  by  his  nobler 
qualities.  At  the  close  of  his  sixty-five  years 
of  life,  we  find  one  of  his  contemporaries 
speaking  of  him  as  a  man  of  "extraordinary 
intellectual  capacity,  readiness  of  wit,  vast 
reading,  strength  of  memory,  treasures  of 
learning,  uncommon  activity,  unwearied  ap- 
plication, extensive  zeal,  and  splendid  virtue, 
through  the  abundance  of  the  grace  of  God. ' ' 

In  1703,  the  year  which  marks  the  birth  of 
John  Wesley  in  the  rectory  at  Epworth,  Eng- 
land, Jonathan  Edwards  was  born  in  the 
Congregational  parsonage  at  East  Windsor, 
Connecticut.  Edwards  was  the  grandson  of 
the  great  Northampton  minister,  Rev.  Solo- 
mon Stoddard,  and  the  son  of  a  learned  and 
successful  pastor,  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards. 
During  his  life  as  a  student  at  Yale,  Jonathan 
Edwards  read,  thought  and  wrote  on  the 
most  profound  subjects  in  philosophy.  Ath- 
letics and  college  fraternities  had  no  place 
in  his  undergraduate  days;  yet  he  was  a 
lover  of  nature  and  a  very  human  young  man. 
He  graduated  from  the  college  at  the  age  of 
sixteen. 

[218] 


The   Faith    and   Its   Leaders 

Edwards  studied  theology  at  Yale  and 
later  held  a  position  as  tutor  in  the  College, 
until,  in  1727,  he  became  the  associate  of  his 
famous  grandfather,  Eev.  Solomon  Stoddard, 
in  the  Northampton  pastorate.  Here  he  re- 
mained until  1750,  when  trouble  arose  be- 
tween him  and  the  church,  so  that  he  felt 
obliged  to  sever  his  connection  with  it.  He 
then  went  to  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts, 
where  he  served  as  preacher  and  missionary 
to  the  Indians  until  he  was  called  to  the  presi- 
dency of  Princeton  College.  He  met  his 
death  from  being  inoculated  for  smallpox  in 
1758,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  years. 

Jonathan  Edwards  is  the  greatest  name  in 
American  theology.  In  spite  of  slight  weak- 
nesses this  staunch  New  England  Congrega- 
tionalist  stands  in  the  midst  of  many  hard- 
ships with  the  dignity  and  strength  of  a  great 
prophet.  He  was  a  preacher  of  most  un- 
usual power.  He  read  his  sermons  and  had 
none  of  the  art  of  an  orator ;  but  his  concep- 
tions were  so  sound  and  strong  and  the  pas- 
sion of  his  conviction  was  so  genuine  that  his 
preaching  became  a  mighty  force  in  America 
and  Great  Britain.  His  preeminent  strength, 
however,  lay  in  his  thinking.  He  gathered 
up  in  himself  the  spirit  of  his  generation,  so 
that,  as  Bancroft  says : 

*'He  that  would  know  the  workings  of 
the  New  England  mind  in  the  middle  of  the 
last  (eighteenth)  century  and  the  throbbings 
[219] 


The   Pil  g  rim   Faith 

of  its  heart,  must  give  his  days  and  nights 
to  the  study  of  Jonathan  Edwards. ' '  ^ 

His  personal  character  was  even  greater 
than  his  intellect.    Prof.  Allen  says  of  him : 

''Above  the  preacher,  above  the  thinker, 
there  towered  also  the  majestic  purity  of  the 
man — a  character  that  seems  well-nigh  flaw- 
less." 

This  latter  point  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind, 
for  the  common  idea  concerning  Edwards  is 
that  he  was  the  stern  champion  of  a  severe 
theology  and  this  conception  does  scant  jus- 
tice to  a  man  who  possessed  one  of  the  most 
noble  and  gracious  characters  in  American 
history.  The  success  with  which  he  won  and 
led  young  men,  for  instance,  argues  a  power- 
ful and  genial  personality.  He  believed 
clearly  and  steadfastly  in  the  doctrines  that 
exalted  the  power  of  God ;  but  he  was  a  great 
lover  of  his  fellowmen  and  a  tender,  sym- 
pathetic pastor  and  friend. 

Timothy  Dwight  was  especially  blessed  in 
that  his  mother  was  a  woman  of  great  intel- 
lectual superiority.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Jonathan  Edwards  and  had  inherited  some 
of  his  capacity  for  study  and  high  thinking. 
The  little  home  in  Northampton,  Massachu- 
setts, where  Timothy  Dwight  was  bom,  on 
May  14,  1752,  was  turned,  not  many  years 
afterward,  into  a  place  of  study  and  the  child 

1  Bancroft;  Quoted  in  Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  1889, 
p.  vi. 

[220] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

quickly  gave  indications  of  Ms  tMrst  for 
knowledge  and  of  his  ability  to  grasp  and  re- 
tain it.  With  his  mother  as  a  teacher  he 
learned  to  read  the  Bible  correctly  and  even 
fluently  at  the  age  of  four. 

Dwight  was  sent  to  a  grammar  school  and 
when  only  thirteen  years  old  was  ready  to 
enter  college.  He  attended  Yale,  where  he 
was  graduated  with  high  honors  in  1769. 
Immediately  he  began  teaching  at  New 
Haven  and  two  years  later  he  became  a  tutor 
at  Yale.  The  skill  with  which  he  handled 
his  students  while  in  this  position  led  them  to 
draw  up  and  sign  a  petition  that  he  should 
be  called  to  the  presidency.  But  at  his  own 
request  tliis  document  was  never  presented. 

The  tumultuous  days  of  the  Eevolution 
drew  Dwight  from  his  books  and  students 
and  into  the  War,  which  he  entered  as  a  chap- 
lain in  General  Putnam  ^s  army.  By  his 
fiery  patriotic  addresses  he  stirred  freedom- 
loving  New  England  to  increased  activity  in 
the  cause  of  freedom.  Indeed,  he  became  so 
popular  that  numerous  efforts  were  made  to 
elect  him  to  public  office.  All  avenues  of 
service  not  connected  with  the  Christian  min- 
istry, however,  he  steadfastly  refused  to 
enter,  and  finally  in  1783,  he  accepted  a  call 
to  the  church  at  Greenfield,  Connecticut. 

In  1795,  when  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the 
presidency  at  Yale,  Timothy  Dwight  was 
chosen  for  the  unfilled  office  and  in  Septem- 
[221] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

ber  of  that  year  lie  entered  upon  his  duties  as 
head  of  the  College.  With  the  coming  of 
President  Dwight  a  new  era  began  for  Yale. 
Hitherto  it  had  been  an  old-fashioned  school 
with  an  autocratic  headmaster  and  a  few  sub- 
ordinates. Dwight  made  it  an  institution 
based  on  the  broad  plans  of  a  modern  uni- 
versity. New  departments  were  added  and 
old  departments  improved;  the  college  rules 
were  completely  revised,  fines  being  abol- 
ished and  the  relations  of  the  students  to 
the  faculty  being  regulated  by  the  principles 
which  govern  the  intercourse  of  gentlemen; 
the  great  learning  of  the  new  president  soon 
began  to  attract  students  in  increasing  num- 
bers, and  the  roll  of  the  College  lengthened 
rapidly  from  year  to  year. 

President  Dwight 's  plans  included  pro- 
vision for  a  separate  divinity  school.  Such 
an  institution  came  into  being  five  years  after 
his  death,  which  occurred  on  January  11, 
1817. 

Some  conception  of  Dwight 's  tremendous 
energy  and  determination  is  gained  when  we 
consider  that  although  emaciated  and  suffer- 
ing from  months  of  illness  he  continued  to 
hear  his  classes  until  within  a  week  of  his 
death.  After  he  was  no  longer  able  to  go  to 
the  classroom  he  had  his  students  come  to 
his  home,  where  he  lectured  with  great  fervor 
and  eloquence  on  the  subjects  of  their  study. 

Of  the  inner  qualities  of  the  man,  Dr.  Na- 
[  222  ] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

tlianiel  W.  Taylor  says:  ''Nothing  is 
plainer  to  my  mind  (and  I  can  speak  from 
long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  him), 
than  that,  though  by  nature  an  ambitious  and 
proud  man,  loving  greatly  distinction  and 
influence,  and  claiming  superiority  above 
others,  which  was  so  extensively  conceded, — 
his  talents,  his  acquisitions,  his  influence, 
were  conscientiously  devoted  to  the  cause  for 
which  the  Son  of  God  lived  and  died." 

Horace  Bushnell  was  a  native  of  Litch- 
field, Connecticut,  and  was  born  on  the  14th 
of  April,  1802.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he 
made  a  profession  of  Christian  faith  and  two 
years  later  he  became  a  student  at  Yale  Col- 
lege. His  undergraduate  days  were  a  period 
of  doubt  and  questioning  in  tilings  spiritual, 
and  from  this  uncertainty  he  was  unable  to 
free  himself.  Directly  after  his  graduation, 
in  1827,  he  entered  upon  journalistic  work 
and  began  reading  law,  and  two  years  later 
he  accepted  a  position  as  tutor  in  his  Alma 
Mater. 

In  1831  Yale  was  visited  by  a  great  revival, 
and  during  its  progress  Bushnell  found  rest 
from  the  intellectual  doubts  which  still  har- 
assed him.  It  was  through  the  gateway  of 
the  feelings  rather  than  through  the  avenue 
of  cold  reason  that  the  peace  he  sought  came. 
"I  have  a  heart  as  well  as  a  head,"  he  said 
to  his  fellow  tutors:  "My  heart  wants  the 
Father;  my  heart  wants  the  Son;  my  heart 
[223] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

wants  the  Holy  Ghost — and  one  just  as  mucli 
as  the  other.  My  heart  says  the  Bible  has  a 
Trinity  for  me,  and  I  mean  to  hold  by  my 
heart. ' ' 

With  the  clearing  of  his  spiritual  horizon 
there  came  a  new  vision  of  service  and  he 
began  a  course  of  study  in  the  theological  de- 
partment of  Yale.  Graduating  in  1833,  he 
at  once  entered  upon  his  long  period  of  serv- 
ice in  the  North  Congregational  Church  of 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  where  he  labored  as  a 
preacher  and  public-spirited  citizen  until  ill 
health  forced  his  retirement,  in  1859.  Bush- 
nell  assumed  a  commanding  place  of  leader- 
ship in  civic  matters  and  Hartford  owes 
largely  to  his  efforts  the  movements  that  pro- 
vided her  with  a  system  of  public  waterworks 
and  gave  her  the  beautiful  park  that  bears 
his  name. 

The  Pilgrim  Faith  owes  much  to  this  loyal 
son,  who  through  the  long  years  of  physical 
weakness  and  bodily  pain  that  followed  his 
retirement  never  relaxed  his  efforts  for  the 
advancement  of  the  Kingdom.  Bushnell  has 
shown  what  can  be  done  by  a  determined  and 
earnest  man  in  the  face  of  sickness  and  phys- 
ical disability. 

In  1847  he  published  his  "Discourses  on 
Christian  Nurture,"  a  book  in  which  we  see 
the  beginnings  of  what  is  now  known  as  ' '  edu- 
cational evangelism."  According  to  Bush- 
nell's  thinking,  it  is  neither  necessary  nor 
[224] 


The   Faith   and   Its   Leaders 

normal  for  the  child,  especially  the  child  of 
the  Christian  home,  to  pass  through  an  ex- 
perience of  ''conversion."  He  held  that  by 
judicious  nurture  the  little  life  can  be  so 
molded  that  Christian  faith  and  trust  will  be 
but  the  normal  expression  of  its  soul.  This 
position,  very  different  from  that  defended 
by  the  majority  of  the  ministers  of  his  day, 
produced  intense  protest  and  debate. 

' '  God  in  Christ, ' '  another  important  work, 
was  published  by  Bushnell  two  years  later. 
In  this  book  he  set  forth  a  view  of  the  atone- 
ment that  had  little  or  nothing  in  common 
with  that  taught  by  Edwards  and  held  by  a 
majority  of  his  Congregational  brethren. 
Bushnell  excluded  all  thought  of  a  penal 
quality  in  the  death  of  Christ  and  sought  to 
define  the  atonement  rather  in  terms  of  Chris- 
tian experience,  considering  it  as  an  expres- 
sion of  God's  love  for  us — as  a  divine  mani- 
festation intended  to  draw  us  to  God  and  to 
bring  us  to  view  sin  and  holiness  as  He  views 
them.  With  the  publication  of  this  book  a 
storm  of  criticism  broke  upon  Bushnell.  De- 
mands were  made  for  the  trial  of  this  daring 
Hartford  divine,  but  the  Association  of 
Churches  in  his  district  declined  to  take  up 
the  case,  and  although  appeals  were  made 
repeatedly  to  the  General  Association  of 
Connecticut,  that  body  refused  to  set  aside 
the  decision  of  the  local  organization  to  sus- 
tain no  charges  against  the  radical  writer. 
[225] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

The  conceptions  of  Bushnell  were  further 
set  forth  in  his  later  works, ' '  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural,"  "The  Vicarious  Sacrifice," 
and  "Forgiveness  and  Law."  Bushnell  was 
not  a  theologian  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word;  he  sought  to  go  behind  intellectual 
theories  and  reach  the  vital  truth  that  is  ex- 
perienced by  the  heart  rather  than  under- 
stood by  the  mind.  His  service  to  the  Faith 
and  to  the  Church  at  large  was  great,  and  its 
enricliing  effect  on  the  thinking  of  Christian 
men  grows  rather  than  diminishes  with  the 
passing  years. 

In  a  little  cabin  in  the  frontier  fur  trading 
town  of  Detroit  a  baby  boy  was  born  on  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1802.  It  was  to  a  poor  home  that 
he  came  and  to  a  family  whose  life  was  one 
continual  round  of  hardship  and  struggle 
against  poverty.  The  child  was  Leonard 
Bacon,  and  his  father,  David  Bacon,  was  a 
missionary  to  the  Indians  of  the  West.  Mis- 
understood by  the  society  that  sent  him  out, 
underpaid,  burdened  with  the  debts  which 
the  unexpected  expenses  of  frontier  life 
forced  upon  him,  David  Bacon  in  his  daily 
life  taught  his  son,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
how  to  "endure  hardship  as  a  good  soldier." 

At  fifteen  the  lad  was  left  fatherless,  but 
through  the  help  of  his  uncle  he  received  the 
training  of  the  Hartford  Grammar  School. 
In  1817  he  entered  the  sophomore  class  at 
Yale,  at  which  institution  he  was  graduated 
[226] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

when  eighteen  years  of  age.  Later  he  com- 
pleted a  regular  course  of  study  at  Andover 
and  spent  one  year  there  in  post-graduate 
work. 

In  1825  Leonard  Bacon  accepted  a  call  to 
the  First  Church  in  New  Haven.  This 
church,  which  was  one  of  the  foremost  in 
rank  at  that  time,  had  had  as  ministers  two 
preachers  of  strength  and  eloquence — Na- 
thaniel W.  Taylor  and  Moses  Stuart.  At  the 
close  of  the  first  year  of  his  pastorate  Bacon 
was  waited  upon  by  a  committee,  who  sug- 
gested that  his  sermons  were  not  of  the  qual- 
ity of  those  that  the  congregation  had  heard 
from  Stuart  and  Taylor.  Bacon's  reply  was 
characteristic:  "Gentlemen,  they  shall  be 
made  worthy."  That  this  promise  was  ful- 
filled is  attested  by  his  fifty-six  years  of  serv- 
ice in  the  New  Haven  church,  forty  of  which 
he  spent  in  active  pastoral  work,  and  six- 
teen as  pastor  emeritus. 

From  Hamilton  College  Bacon  received 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  1842 ;  and 
Harvard  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Laws  in  1870. 
He  was  chosen  moderator  of  the  two  Brook- 
lyn Councils  of  1874  and  1876,  the  most 
widely-discussed  Congregational  advisory 
bodies  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. After  his  retirement  from  the  New 
Haven  pastorate  he  served  for  five  years  as 
Acting  Professor  of  Eevealed  Theology  in 
Yale  Seminary,  and  from  1871  to  the  day  of 
[227] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

his  death,  in  1881,  he  was  lecturer  at  Yale  on 
Church  Polity  and  American  Church  His- 
tory. 

During  the  days  of  his  power  Dr.  Bacon 
was  without  an  equal  in  American  Congre- 
gationalism as  a  debater.  He  was  a  deep  stu- 
dent of  Congregational  polity  and  a  firm  be- 
liever in  it,  and  it  was  largely  through  his 
leadership  that  the  denomination  was 
brought  back  to  confidence  in  itself  and  its 
principles  after  the  period  of  self-distrust 
that  followed  the  Unitarian  defection. 

Dr.  Bacon  added  to  his  skill  as  a  debater 
a  fine  literary  style.  His  writings  sparkle 
with  wit  and  glow  with  passion,  as  did  his 
arguments  from  the  forum.  He  wrote  easily 
and  with  a  rapidity  that  was  surprising  even 
to  his  friends.  His  published  volumes  were 
many.  During  the  first  years  of  his  ministry 
he  became  fascinated  by  the  early  story  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith.  With  patience  and  dili- 
gence, he  searched  for  obscure  facts  bear- 
ing upon  it  and  in  1874  he  published,  ''The 
Genesis  of  the  New  England  Churches,"  his 
most  extensive  and  important  work.  Dr. 
Bacon  was  largely  instrumental  in  founding 
the  "New  Englander"  in  1843  and  the  New 
York  "Independent,"  in  1848. 

Early  in  his  ministry  he  warmly  advocated 

the  temperance  movement  and  the  abolition 

of  slavery;  two  causes  that  were  by  no  means 

popular  in  his  time.     The  strength  and  skill 

[  228  ] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

with  whicli  Dr.  Bacon  defended  them  cost 
him  the  support  of  not  a  few  in  his  own 
church. 

But  above  the  pulpit  orator,  the  writer, 
the  debater,  towered  the  man.  Prof.  Willis- 
ton  Walker  describes  the  impression  that 
Dr.  Bacon  made  upon  him  when,  as  a  little 
lad,  he  sat  Sunday  after  Sunday  in  the  pew 
directly  in  front  of  the  pulpit  where  the 
venerable  minister  presided  with  his  young 
colleague.    He  says: 

''The  boy  who  then  sat  before  him  well 
remembers  the  sweetness  of  his  voice  as  he 
would  often  rise  to  pray  when  the  sermon  by 
his  successor  had  concluded:  and  even  child- 
ish years  could  appreciate  something  of  the 
tenderness,  felicity,  and  strength  of  the 
words  in  which  he  would  lift  the  petitions  of 
the  congregation  along  the  pathway  of  the 
thoughts  to  which  it  had  listened  in  the  dis- 
course. .  .  .  Even  the  boy  knew  that  it  was  a 
great  man  that  sat  before  him,  and  felt  the 
power  of  that  greatness,  though  it  was  be- 
yond his  abilities  to  determine  wherein  that 
greatness  lay." 

If  we  were  called  upon  to  mark  the  name 
of  the  man  who  most  profoundly  affected  the 
theological  thought  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  in 
the  nineteenth  century  we  should  select  that 
of  Edwards  Amasa  Park  of  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  Upon  his  shoulders  the 
mantle  of  the  Edwards  seemed  to  fall. 
[229] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

Park  was  born  in  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  on  December  29,  1808.  After  his 
graduation  from  Brown  University  he  en- 
tered Andover  Seminary,  where  he  com- 
pleted his  theological  studies  in  1831.  He 
began  work  in  the  Avorld  as  a  minister,  becom- 
ing pastor  of  the  Orthodox  Congregational 
Church  in  Braintree,  Massachusetts;  but  in 
1835  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Moral  and 
Intellectual  Philosophy  and  Hebrew  Litera- 
ture at  Amherst  College.  After  one  year 
there  he  went  to  Andover  Seminary  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Rhetoric.  In  1847  he  was  made 
Professor  of  Christian  Theology  in  the  Semi- 
nary, and  this  position  he  held  until  1881, 
when  he  retired  as  professor  emeritus. 

In  1844  Prof.  Park,  in  conjunction  with 
Prof.  Bela  B.  Edwards,  founded  "Bibliotheca 
Sacra,"  a  religious  periodical.  He  was  its 
editor  until  1884. 

Park  was  a  preacher  of  great  power  and 
eloquence.  He  swayed  his  audiences  with  the 
mighty  sweep  of  his  thought.  To  come  under 
the  spell  of  his  logic  was  to  receive  lifelong 
impressions  of  the  sublimity  and  grandeur  of 
Scripture  truth.  The  vast  army  of  Phillips 
Academy  and  Andover  Seminary  students 
who  heard  his  sermons  in  the  Chapel  must 
have  gained  from  them  no  small  part  of  their 
education  and  no  meager  inspiration  for  their 
life  work. 

But  it  was  in  the  realm  of  theology  that  the 
[  230  ] 


The   Faith    and   Its   Leaders 

influence  of  Prof.  Park  was  most  deeply  felt. 
Under  him  the  Edwardean  elements  in  the 
creed  of  Andover  Seminary  became  more 
prominent  than  they  had  been  under  his  pred- 
ecessor ;  indeed,  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Wil- 
liston  Walker,  ''they  became  part  of  the  men- 
tal furnishing  of  more  theological  students 
than  any  other  Congregationalist  has  ever 
personally  taught."  Prof.  Park  was  the  last 
of  the  succession  of  great  ministers  who  de- 
fined and  defended  the  various  phases  of  the 
New  England  Theology.  In  general  he  was 
the  equal  of  Edwards  himself  as  a  preacher, 
a  debater  and  a  profound  theologian. 

On  the  ninetieth  anniversary  of  his  birth- 
day there  was  published  in  "Bibliotheca 
Sacra"  a  large  number  of  letters  from  for- 
mer pupils  and  other  friends  who  wished  to 
tell  Prof.  Park  of  the  effect  of  their  acquaint- 
ance with  him  upon  their  thinking  and  their 
outward  lives.  A  glance  at  these  enthusi- 
astic testimonials  shows  how  profoundly  he 
moved  those  with  whom  he  came  into  contact, 
and  how  wide  was  the  range  of  his  influence. 
We  quote  from  one,  that  of  Prof.  A.  V.  G. 
Allen  of  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  of 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 

''It  was  your  gift  and  rich  endowment  to 
be  such  a  teacher  as  to  command  the  un- 
bounded devotion  of  your  pupils.  Such  a 
teacher  comes  but  rarely,  a  gift  of  heaven, 
yet  also  the  result  of  ages  of  preparation. 
[231] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

Such  a  teacher  in  theology  you  were  to  us, 
unexampled  in  the  power  of  creating  a  deep 
interest  in  the  subject,  giving  us  an  insight 
into  many  fine  and  subtle  distinctions  of  the- 
ological inquiry,  giving  to  us  also  a  firm  grasp 
on  essential  things,  opening  up  the  vast  range 
of  the  field  to  be  explored,  and  then  impress- 
ing our  minds  so  powerfully  and  vividly  with 
the  form  and  eloquence  of  the  presentation 
that  each  lecture  left  its  indelible  stamp  on 
the  mind  and  each  succeeding  lecture  was 
eagerly  anticipated  as  a  great  and  blessed 
privilege." 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  born  in  Litch- 
field, Connecticut,  on  June  24, 1813,  the  fourth 
son  of  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher.  In  1834  he 
graduated  from  Amherst  College,  and  later 
he  completed  a  course  at  Lane  Theological 
Seminary.    He  died  March  8,  1887. 

No  list  of  days  and  years,  however,  can 
bound  a  life  so  great  as  Beecher 's.  His  was 
a  spirit  that  cannot  be  catalogued.  He  is  the 
possession  of  no  one  denomination  or  age ;  he 
belongs  to  the  Church  and  the  centuries. 
There  seem  to  have  been  embedded  deep  in 
his  soul  moral,  spiritual  and  emotional  quali- 
ties that  suggest  some  of  the  varied  natural 
beauties  of  the  country  which  he  loved  and 
served.  He  possessed  the  rugged  strength 
of  the  New  England  hills,  the  breadth  and 
sweep  of  the  Western  prairies,  the  depth  and 
flow  of  the  Mississippi  at  flood,  the  majestic 
[232] 


The   Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

lift  of  the  Rockies,  the  endless  variety  of  the 
forests  and  the  fields,  the  tender  beauty  of 
the  flowers  of  spring. 

Beecher's  chief  source  of  power  was  his 
oratory,  and  to  him  it  was  ever  a  sacred  thing. 
Whether  he  spoke  in  the  quiet  lecture  room 
in  his  own  church,  or  before  the  hissing,  hoot- 
ing audiences  that  greeted  him  in  England, 
the  ability  which  he  possessed  to  sway  the 
hearts  of  men  was  in  his  mind  a  gift  from 
God,  and  as  such  must  be  used  only  for  the 
uplifting  of  humanity.  Those  who  heard  hun 
speak  felt  this  as  they  listened  to  the  sen- 
tences that  came  from  his  lips.  His  words 
sometimes  had  in  them  the  vividness  of  the 
lightning  flash  and  the  crack  and  peal  of  the 
thunder :  again  they  pulsed  with  the  tender- 
ness that  can  move  to  tears. 

The  human  soul  was  to  Beecher  an  *  in- 
strument of  ten  strings"  from  which  it  was 
his  duty  to  bring  forth  the  wondrous  har- 
monies which  it  can  produce  only  when  in 
tune  with  the  spirit  of  the  Infinite.  He  knew 
the  soul's  humor  and  pathos,  its  fierce  pas- 
sions and  its  gentle  moods,  and  he  applied 
himself  with  all  his  power  of  mind  and  heart 
to  the  mastery  of  this  instrument.  And  such 
a  mastery  he  gained ;  for  by  a  single  touch  he 
could  evoke  laughter  or  tears,  remorse,  sense 
of  sin,  consciousness  of  civic  and  religious 
duty,  or  imperial  decision  to  action.  His 
journey  through  England  and  Scotland  dur- 
[  233  ] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

ing  the  Civil  War,  when,  day  after  day,  he 
faced  hostile  crowds,  was  a  triumphant  march 
of  oratory  and  persuasive  power.  England's 
whole  attitude  toward  America  and  slavery 
was  changed  when  he  left  her  shores. 

But  it  was  in  his  prayers  that  people  felt 
that  the  great  soul  drew  nearest  to  God.  As 
Beecher  prayed  men  caught  new  conceptions 
of  life  and  its  realities.  It  was  as  if  he  were 
a  shepherd  leading  his  sheep  out  into  new 
pastures;  leading  them  until  they  met  the 
Great  Shepherd  and  forgot  the  voice  of  their 
guide  in  their  wonder  at  the  kindness  of  His 
face  and  the  sweetness  of  His  tones.  In 
Beecher 's  prayers  no  one  was  forgotten;  each 
hearer  felt  that  his  own  peculiar  needs 
and  perplexities  were  shared  by  the  great 
preacher.  Old  man  and  maiden,  care-free 
child  and  tired  mother,  harassed  business  man 
and  unworried  youth — all  could  say,  'Hhe 
minister  remembered  me  in  his  prayer  this 
morning."  And  they  published  Beecher 's 
Sabbath  prayers  with  his  Sabbath  sermons ! 
Otherwise  the  sermons  had  been  incomplete. 

But  how  tell  in  so  brief  a  space  of  so  great 
a  man?  From  the  time  when  he  went  to  his 
first  parish,  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Lau- 
renceburg,  Indiana,  until  after  completing  his 
service  in  Indianapolis,  he  concluded  his 
forty  years  of  work  at  Plymouth  Church, 
Brooklyn,  he  established  a  superb  record  of 
great  things  well  done.  He  was  at  one  time 
[234] 


The    Faith    and   Its    Leaders 

editor  of  the  "Independent,"  and  subse- 
quently founded  and  edited  the  "Christian 
Union,"  now  "The  Outlook."  He  was  the 
champion  of  every  great  reform  of  his  day. 
His  principal  books,  besides  his  published 
sermons,  are  his  "Yale  Lectures  on  Preach- 
ing," and  his  "Life  of  Jesus  the  Christ." 

More  than  any  other  man  of  his  time,  per- 
haps, Beecher  led  the  Church  and  the  com- 
munity from  a  religion  of  obedience  to  exter- 
nal law  to  a  life  of  spontaneous  spirituality; 
from  a  religion  that  compelled  men  to  fear 
God  to  one  that  permits  men  to  love  God. 
He  made  the  atonement  a  thing  to  be  wel- 
comed by  the  soul  rather  than  a  stern,  dread 
necessity;  he  taught  folks  to  be  at  home  with 
the  Heavenly  Father. 

Death  came  to  Henry  Ward  Beecher  while 
the  tide  of  his  power  was  at  the  full  and  it 
was  preceded  by  no  long  sickness.  On  the 
last  Sabbath  of  his  ministry  he  lingered  in 
the  church  as  some  members  of  the  choir 
practiced  Bonar's  sweet  hymn: 

"I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say 
'Come  unto  Me  and  rest.'  " 

Two  street  urchins,  attracted  by  the  music, 
had  entered  the  auditorium,  and  as  the  great 
preacher  passed  down  the  aisle  he  stooped 
and  kissed  their  wondering  faces.  Then  with 
an  arm  about  each  of  the  grimy  young- 
sters he  went  out  into  the  night. 
[235] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

Wlien  the  student  of  Congregational  his- 
tory wishes  to  trace  to  their  sources  the  many 
streams  of  influence,  thought  and  action,  that, 
coming  together,  have  formed  the  Pilgrim 
Faith,  he  must  turn  to  the  works  of  Dr.  Henry 
M.  Dexter.  And  as  he  reads  he  will  inevit- 
ably pay  tribute  to  the  scholarly  accuracy  and 
the  painstaking  care  with  which  this  writer 
has  set  down  the  obscure  facts  in  the  rise  and 
the  development  of  the  denomination. 

Henry  Martyn  Dexter  was  born  on  August 
13, 1821,  at  Plympton,  Massachusetts,  a  town- 
ship that  formed  a  part  of  the  old  Plymouth 
Colony.  Without  doubt  his  early  associa- 
tions with  this  place  did  much  to  kindle  into 
flame  his  passion  for  historical  research.  At 
the  age  of  nineteen  he  completed  a  course  of 
study  at  Yale  College  and  four  years  later  he 
graduated  from  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary. He  entered  the  Congregational  min- 
istry as  pastor  at  Manchester,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  after  five  years  of  service  there  he 
went  to  the  Pine  Street  Church  of  Boston, 
now  Berkeley  Temple. 

His  love  of  religious  journalism  led  him,  in 
1851,  to  assume  the  editorship  of  "The  Con- 
gregationalist, ' '  which  had  been  founded  only 
two  years  before.  The  coming  of  Dr.  Dexter 
brought  strength  and  vigor  to  the  paper,  and 
under  his  hand  it  prospered.  In  1867  it  was 
consolidated  with  the  ''Boston  Eecorder," 
the  pioneer  religious  weekly  of  America. 
[236] 


The   Faith   and  Its  Leaders 

After  the  merging  of  the  two  journals  Dr. 
Dexter  resigned  his  pastorate  in  order  that 
he  might  devote  his  entire  time  to  Christian 
journalism. 

In  November,  1858,  Dr.  Dexter,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Dr.  Alonzo  H.  Quint  and  Joseph  S. 
Clark,  began  the  publication  of  a  ''Congre- 
gational Quarterly,"  devoted  to  Congrega- 
tional history,  biography,  statistical  investi- 
gation and  polity  exposition.  During  its 
twenty  years  of  existence  this  periodical 
never  secured  from  the  churches  the  support 
which  it  should  have  had  but  it  proved  itself 
one  of  the  most  important  educational  agen- 
cies of  the  denomination. 

Dr.  Dexter 's  writings  include  some  twenty- 
five  books  and  also  numerous  magazine  arti- 
cles. His  monumental  work,  "The  Congre- 
gationalism of  the  Last  Three  Hundred 
Years,"  is  a  treasure  house  of  facts  regard- 
ing the  early  history  of  the  Faith,  The  libra- 
ries of  England  and  Holland  were  ran- 
sacked in  the  search  for  material  for  this 
book.  His  ' '  Congregationalism :  What  It  Is, 
Whence  It  Is  and  How  It  Works,"  is  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  thorough  expositions  of 
the  polity  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  In  1876  he 
published  "As  to  Roger  Williams,"  and  in 
1881,  "The  True  Story  of  John  Smyth," 
books  that  show  most  careful  sifting  of  evi- 
dence regarding  disputed  passages  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Faith.  His  "Handbook  of  Con- 
[237] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

gregationalism, "  is  one  of  the  most  exten- 
sively-used compendiums  of  Congregational 
church  government  and  organization.  Some 
conception  of  the  faithful  and  indefatigable 
industry  in  historic  research  which  made  Dr. 
Dexter  an  authority  can  be  gained  from  a 
manuscript  which  was  found  after  his  death. 
It  is  headed  "A  Bibliography  of  the  Church 
Struggle  in  England  during  the  Sixteenth 
Century,"  and  contains  near  10,000  titles. 
Dr.  Dexter 's  own  library,  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Yale  University,  is  the  best  collection 
of  Congregational  sources  ever  assembled  by 
one  individual. 

Dr.  Dexter  was  more  than  a  student,  how- 
ever ;  he  was  a  man  ever  active  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Church,  and  his  voice  was  a  power  in 
the  deliberations  of  the  denomination.  His 
large-hearted  generosity  and  his  charity  to- 
ward those  who  held  views  that  differed  from 
his  made  his  clear-sighted  leadership  wel- 
come. ''He  certainly,  more  than  any  other 
man,"  says  Dr.  Walker,  ''pointed  out  the 
line  of  development  in  polity  actually  taken 
by  American  Congregationalism  from  1865 
to  the  present  day;  and  he  deserves  a  high 
rank  among  those  who  are  reckoned  the  for- 
mulators  and  developers  of  the  Congrega- 
tional system." 

No  name  on  the  long  roll  of  consecrated 
laymen  who  have  given  themselves  with  un- 
stinted loyalty  to  the  ideals  and  the  activity 
[238] 


The   Faith    and   Its   Leaders 

of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  stands  out  with  greater 
luster  than  that  of  Hon.  Alpheus  Hardy. 
Mr.  Hardy  was  born  in  Chatham,  Massachu- 
setts, on  November  1, 1815. 

It  was  not  his  privilege  to  attend  any  of  the 
institutions  of  higher  learning;  his  educa- 
tional training  was  confined  for  the  most  part 
to  what  he  could  gain  in  his  native  town.  He 
possessed  the  true  passion  for  knowledge 
and  applied  himself  diligently  in  order  that 
he  might  make  the  most  of  his  opportunities. 
Compelled  to  turn  aside  from  business  for 
a  time  he  seized  the  opportunity  to  seek  more 
education  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover. 
But  this  was  a  brief  experience.  In  later 
years  it  was  a  matter  of  astonishment  to 
those  who  were  privileged  to  enter  his  library 
to  note  the  wide  range  of  his  reading;  there 
were  few  general  subjects  on  which  he  was 
not  informed. 

By  trade  Mr.  Hardy  was  a  merchant,  and  in 
his  business  career  he  was  very  successful. 
His  wisdom  and  prudence  were  so  highly  ap- 
preciated that  his  aid  was  frequently  sought 
in  the  management  of  great  pecuniary  trusts. 

In  1857  Mr.  Hardy  was  chosen  a  corporate 
member  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions  and  at  the  same 
time  was  made  a  member  of  its  Prudential 
Committee,  a  position  which  he  held  until  the 
time  of  his  death,  August  7,  1887.  In  1873 
he  became  Chairman  of  this  Committee,  and 
[239] 


The    Pilgrim    Faith 

this  office  lie  held  for  thirteen  years.  His 
services  were  of  the  utmost  value,  for  he  was 
ready  at  any  day  or  hour  to  give  his  time  to 
the  enterprises  of  the  Board,  and  he  brought 
to  it  his  skill  as  a  business  man  and  financier. 

The  field  to  which  Mr.  Hardy's  thought  and 
attention  was  most  attracted  was  that  of 
Japan.  Upon  one  of  his  ships  a  Japanese 
boy  found  passage,  and  when  the  vessel 
reached  Boston  the  lad,  who  had  fled  from  his 
home  in  order  to  secure  an  education,  was 
brought  into  Mr.  Hardy's  counting-room.  In 
this  runaway  from  Japan  the  merchant  saw 
a  great  opportunity.  He  took  him  home  and 
there  trained  him  as  carefully  and  tenderly 
as  one  might  train  a  son.  After  giving  the 
young  foreigner  the  best  education  possible 
Mr.  Hardy  sent  him  back  to  Japan  as  a  min- 
ister of  Christ.  This  boy  was  Joseph  Hardy 
Neesima,  whose  story  has  been  briefly  told 
in  Chapter  VIII. 

Mr.  Hardy  rendered  service  to  the  Faith 
also  as  trustee  of  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary and  of  Amherst  College. 

These  ten  sketches  have  been  given  merely 
to  furnish  an  idea  of  the  wealth  of  biograph- 
ical material  which  is  available  to  the  student 
of  the  history  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  Leaders 
of  commanding  power  have  guided  the  Con- 
gregational churches  ever  since  the  first  con- 
gregation was  organized  on  the  shores  of 
New  England. 

[240] 


The   F aith   and   Its   Leaders 

There  seems  to  be  something  in  the  genius 
of  Congregationalism  that  produces  strong 
personalities.  The  very  fact  of  independence 
and  democracy  in  thought  and  life  calls  out 
personal  power  as  a  natural  and  inevitable 
corollary.  Quite  out  of  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  Congregational  church  and  to  its  total 
membership  has  been  the  number  of  its  pow- 
erful and  conspicuous  leaders.  They  have 
been  men  whose  influence  has  extended  far 
beyond  denominational  and  credal  limits; 
whose  power  for  good  has  been  exerted  upon 
the  higher  life  of  humanity.  And  to  Congre- 
gationalists  it  should  be  a  matter  of  especial 
satisfaction  that  such  men  may  be  numbered 
among  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith. 


[241] 


xn 

THE  PILGRIM  FAITH  AND  HUMAN 
BROTHERHOOD 


XII 

THE  PILGRIM  FAITH  AND  HUMAN 
BROTHERHOOD 

THE  Congregationalists  never  liave  been 
mastered  by  so  strong  a  consciousness 
of  tbeir  own  denominational  worth  and  mis- 
sion that  they  have  been  led  to  overlook  their 
fundamental  relationships  with  the  life  of  the 
entire  world.  They  have,  indeed,  been  criti- 
cised frequently  on  the  ground  that  they  have 
seemed  to  be  so  careless  about  the  promotion 
of  their  own  particular  interests  while  re- 
sponding to  the  call  for  general  moral  and 
philanthropic  work  in  some  place  outside  of 
their  own  peculiar  domain  where  brotherly 
service  could  be  rendered.  From  the  earliest 
days  of  colonial  New  England  Congrega- 
tional ministers  and  laymen  have  given  their 
time,  their  personal  effort  and  their  money 
unstintedly  to  every  charitable  cause,  to  every 
elevating  moral  movement  and  to  every  com- 
mon enterprise  that  has  made  for  the  highest 
welfare  of  men. 

It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  societies 
and  other  agencies  of  a  benevolent  and  refor- 
mative character  that  have  been  organized, 
guided  and  supported  by  Congregationalists 
[245] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

in  America  during  the  last  three  hundred 
years.  The  charitable  and  corrective  organi- 
zations of  this  country  for  more  than 
two  centuries  generally  established  them- 
selves in  New  England,  often  originated  there 
and  naturally  it  was  from  Congregationalists 
that  they  secured  money  and  members  for 
their  equipment  and  maintenance. 

The  field  in  which  the  wider  service  of  the 
Pilgrim  Faith  first  appears  is  that  of  ministry 
to  the  poor — not  only  to  those  in  Congrega- 
tional parishes,  but  also  others  who  have 
been  in  economic  or  financial  distress. 
In  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in 
the  general  methods  of  bestowing  charity, 
the  Congregational  churches  have  been 
ready  to  cooperate  with  other  philan- 
thropic agencies,  and  the  result  has  been  a 
lessening  of  distinctively  denominational  and 
ecclesiastical  benevolence.  Every  church, 
however,  still  cares  for  cases  of  need  among 
its  own  fellowship  and  none  ever  will  entirely 
surrender  this  gracious  work  to  other 
agencies  so  long  as  it  remains  loyal  to  the 
Apostolic  idea  of  its  function.  No  figures 
are  at  hand  by  which  we  may  reckon  the  total 
scope  of  the  gifts,  financial  and  personal, 
through  which  the  churches  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith  have  sought  to  relieve  distress,  thus 
carrying  out  the  master's  command  that  his 
followers  shall  minister  in  his  name  to  every 
human  need. 

[246] 


SAMUEL    C.    ARMSTRONG  GEN.    O.    O.    HOWARD 

HENRY    WARD    BEECHER 
AMORY    H.    BRADFORD  WASHINGTON    GLADDEN 


The    F  aith    and   Brotherhood 

Congregational  pastors  and  laymen  have 
been  leaders  in  the  association  of  charitable 
agencies  and  in  the  introduction  of  scientific 
methods  into  the  conduct  of  organized  benev- 
olent societies.  There  are  innumerable  cases 
in  which  the  movements  out  of  which  have 
grown  relief  societies,  organized  charities, 
visiting  nurses'  associations  and  kindred 
organizations  have  begun  in  the  pulpits  of 
Congregational  churches  and  have  been  given 
their  initial  development  through  the  loyalty, 
the  generosity  and  the  enthusiasm  of  as- 
sembled congregations.  The  ministers  rep- 
resenting the  Pilgrim  Faith  have  always  been 
peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  appeal  of  brother- 
hood and  to  the  call  for  humanitarian  service. 
They  have  been  "socially  conscious"  and 
have  shown  themselves  ready  to  lead  and 
work  in  all  the  enterprises  that  promote  bet- 
ter community  life. 

When  we  turn  to  more  distinctly  moral 
movements  we  find  that  men  and  women  of 
the  Pilgrim  Faith  in  the  United  States  have 
borne  a  commanding  part  in  them.  In  the 
Colonial  Period  it  was  necessary  to  oppose 
the  evil  influences  which  entered  into  the 
popular  life  and  the  ministers  and  laymen  of 
the  churches  at  once  assumed  their  place  in 
the  attack  upon  wrong.  When  the  great  anti- 
slavery  struggle  was  reached  it  was  the 
church  people  who  stood  behind  the  societies 
that  sought  to  create  public  opinion  against 
[247] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

human  bondage,  that  published  defenses  of 
freedom,  sent  immigrants  into  Kansas,  and 
prayed  for  the  triumph  of  liberty.  Abraham 
Lincoln  stood  on  the  rear  platform  of  his  rail- 
road car  in  Springfield  as  he  was  about  to  set 
out  for  Washington  and  asked  his  friends  and 
neighbors  to  pray  for  him.  He  knew  that 
the  prayers  and  the  sympathies  of  Christian 
people  were  behind  him  as  he  went  forth  to 
assume  his  difficult  duties  at  the  capital. 
And  during  the  years  that  followed  the  Con- 
gregationalists  worked  and  prayed  for  free- 
dom and  for  Abraham  Lincoln. 

In  rescue  missions  and  homes  for  wajrward 
girls,  men  and  women  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
are  doing  noble  and  rewarding  work.  One 
of  them — and  his  service  is  representative — 
is  Rev.  Ernest  A.  Bell,  of  the  Chicago  Mid- 
night Mission.  Night  after  night,  in  the 
most  terrible  section  of  that  great  city,  he 
confronts  the  darkness  with  the  call  and  chal- 
lenge of  the  radiant  cross  of  Christ  as  he 
preaches  and  personally  meets  the  destitute, 
discouraged  and  degenerate  folk  who  assem- 
ble to  hear. 

In  the  modern  cause  of  "social  service" 
Congregationalism  has  been  represented  ef- 
ficiently and  honorably. 

The  idea  of  the  university  settlement  and 
social  settlement  originated  in  England  in 
response  to  that  higher  culture  which  recog- 
nizes its  obligation  to  serve  those  who  do  not 
[248] 


WILLIAM    E.    BARTON 


RAYMOND    CALKINS 


WILLIAM    W.    MILLS 


AETnUK  H.    WELLMAN  NEHEMIAH   BOYNTON 


HENRY    H.    KELSEY 


CIIAULES   S.    NASH 


i'RANK   KIMBALI, 


HENKY    A.    STIMSON 


CIIAULES    s.    MILLS 


HENRY   M.    BEARDSLET 


EDWARD   D.    EATON 


The    Faith    and   Brotherhood 

enjoy  its  advantages.  Since  this  conception 
has  won  a  place  in  America  men  and  women 
of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  have  given  themselves 
with  sacrifice  and  devotion  to  the  creation  and 
the  conduct  of  centers  of  goodwill  and  neigh- 
borliness  in  our  large  cities.  Some  devote 
their  whole  time  and  effort  to  this  work,  while 
others  give  frequently  of  their  means  for  the 
uplift  of  communities  through  these  agencies. 

The  problem  of  settlements  in  our  great 
centers  of  population  is  a  complicated  one. 
The  influx  of  a  babel  of  nationalities  erects 
almost  insurmountable  barriers  of  language 
and  custom ;  there  is  a  rude  reversal  of  rela- 
tionships, parents  becoming  dependent  upon 
their  children  as  interpreters  instead  of 
themselves  instructing  and  guiding  the  chil- 
dren; often  fathers  have  to  leave  their  city 
homes  to  seek  work  at  some  lumber  camp  or 
railway  section,  and  in  many  cases  families 
have  been  transplanted  from  out-of-door 
peasant  life  to  crowded  tenements  knowing 
little  or  nothing  of  the  principles  of  diet, 
sanitation,  and  general  health  or  of  the  laws 
of  the  land  to  which  they  have  come. 

Foremost  among  those  who  have  come  for- 
ward to  aid  in  the  solving  of  this  involved  and 
bewildering  problem  have  been  men  and 
women  of  the  Faith.  In  the  early  nineties 
Dr.  Graham  Taylor,  at  the  conclusion  of  a 
devoted  pastorate  that  had  been  unusually 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  common 
[249] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

people,  found  liimself  in  the  chair  of  Chris- 
tian Sociology  at  Chicago  Theological  Semi- 
nary.    For  his  own  better  equipment  and  for 
the  benefit  of  the  students  whom  he  was  to 
send  out  into  the  ministry  he  desired  a  place 
where  some  of  the  millions  who  were  coming 
to  America  could  be  studied  and  observed  at 
first  hand.    Eev.  Herman  F.  Hegner,  a  Con- 
gregational   minister,    had    begun    a    work 
among  the  immigrants  in  a  quiet  way  in  an 
upper  room  at  what  was  then  124  W.  Erie  St. 
Dr.  Taylor  became  interested  in  this  enter- 
prise, and  the  proposition  was  soon  made  that 
it  be  enlarged.     The  building  in  which  the 
work  was  being  done  was  part  of  an  old 
German  farmhouse,  with  broad  verandas  and 
large  rooms.     It  had  fallen  into  disuse  and 
was   out   of  repair,  but  was   profusely  in- 
habited ;  and  many  battles  had  to  be  fought 
by  the  newcomers  besides  the  physically  un- 
real one  of  winning  their  way  into  the  hearts 
of  the  neighbors.     For  great  gray  rats,  fear- 
less and  impudent,  stalked  the  halls,  by  day 
as  well  as  by  night;  small  brown  creatures 
glided  up  and  down  the  walls,  and  venerable 
roaches  disputed  inch  by  inch  the  territory 
which  the  intruders  wished  to  occupy.^ 

That  anyone  in  full  possession  of  his  facul- 
ties should  wish  to  move  into  the  neighbor- 
hood without  hope  of  gain  seemed  inconceiv- 
able to  the  men  who  had  charge  of  renting 
the  place.  Before  they  would  grant  a  lease 
[250] 


The   Faith   and   Brotherhood 

they  propounded  to  Dr.  Taylor  a  long  list  of 
questions  as  to  his  aims  and  purposes  and  his 
hopes  of  temporal  reward.  The  catechism 
concluded  and  the  document  signed,  Dr.  Tay- 
lor proceeded  to  develop  his  plan. 

During  the  year  of  its  existence  the  Chi- 
cago Commons,  as  the  new  institution  was 
called,  has  come  to  be  a  center  of  mental, 
moral  and  spiritual  uplift  not  only  to  its  own 
neighborhood  but  also  to  the  city  at  large; 
and  the  work  of  Dr.  Taylor  has  become  known 
and  honored  around  the  world.  Today  the 
Commons  has  an  average  weekly  attendance 
of  about  4000.  The  list  of  clubs,  societies, 
and  classes  that  meet  within  its  walls  shows 
in  how  varied  and  vital  a  way  it  seeks  to 
reach  the  needs  of  the  community.  There  are 
kindergarten  classes,  classes  in  gymnastics, 
cooking,  sewing,  manual  training,  music, 
nature-study,  metal  work,  pottery,  basket- 
weaving,  and  dressmaking.  Clubs  for  boys, 
girls,  men  and  women,  and  societies  for  the 
study  of  literature,  parliamentary  law  and 
dramatics,  together  with  various  organiza- 
tions of  a  purely  social  nature  give  the  im- 
migrants opportunities  for  instruction,  en- 
tertainment and  fellowship. 

What  has  been  said  of  Chicago  Commons 
and  its  work  might  be  said  also  of  the  South 
End  House,  originally  called  the  Andover 
House,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts.  This  in- 
stitution was  established  in  1891  by  Profes- 
[251] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

sor  William  J.  Tucker  who  was  then  in  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary.  He  called  to- 
gether the  younger  alumni  of  the  Seminary 
who  lived  near  Boston  and  laid  before  them 
his  plan  for  social  service.  The  following 
year  the  House  was  opened  and  its  work  for 
the  people  of  its  community  began.  One  of 
its  most  notable  features  is  its  careful  and 
systematic  investigation  of  social  conditions 
and  of  the  means  employed  for  remedying 
the  evils  inherent  in  them.  From  these  in- 
vestigations have  come  many  valuable  contri- 
butions to  the  sociological  questions  of  the 
day. 

Neither  the  South  End  House  nor  Chicago 
Commons  seeks  in  its  ministry  to  the  people 
to  take  the  place  of  a  church.  Yet  at  both 
institutions  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  dominant 
in  all  the  varied  forms  of  activity,  and  in 
services  of  a  religious  nature  effort  is  made 
to  discuss  only  themes  on  which  the  opinion 
of  the  crowd  will  be  united  and  to  stop  short 
of  points  that  may  cause  division  or  disagree- 
ment. 

The  final  field  in  which  we  discover  the  out- 
standing service  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  to  the 
highest  interests  of  human  brotherhood  is 
that  of  foreign  lands,  where  missionaries  have 
vindicated  their  work  by  the  wide  range  of  the 
interests  and  relationships  in  which  they  are 
carrying  it  on. 

The  whole  conception  of  foreign  missions 
[252] 


The    F  aith    and   Brotherhood 

has  changed  within  the  last  fifty  years.  The 
central  aim  has  not  been  obscured  or  lost,  but 
the  scope  has  been  immensely  broadened. 
The  fundamental  purpose  of  foreign  missions 
remains  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  those 
who  never  heard  its  message.  This  is  the 
evangelistic  object,  always  central  and  never 
to  be  neglected  or  surrendered.  But  in  addi- 
tion to  this  basic  purpose  there  are  now  in- 
corporated in  the  foreign  missionary  pro- 
gram as  essential  parts  of  it  educational,  med- 
ical, literary  and  industrial  departments.  In 
developing  these  the  Pilgrim  Faith  is  render- 
ing noble  service  to  the  cause  of  human  broth- 
erhood. When  the  basis  of  missionary  work 
is  made  the  loyal  belief  in  the  value  and  im- 
portance of  the  message  of  Christ  and  when 
also  the  betterment  of  the  entire  life  of  the 
people  is  comprehended  in  the  missionary 
program  then  we  have  the  ideal  conception  of 
Christian  service. 

One  of  the  secretaries  of  the  American 
Board  (a  recognized  authority  in  his  field), 
has  been  most  successful  in  pointing  out  the 
wider  meanings  of  the  foreign  missionary 
enterprise.  His  recent  book  ^  ought  to  be 
read  by  the  opponents  as  well  as  by  the 
friends  of  missions.  It  describes  what  has 
been  and  is  being  done  in  many  lines  of  ac- 
tivity by  Christian  workers  abroad,  in  the  ex- 

1  James  L.  Barton,  "Human  Progress  through  Missions," 
1912. 

[253] 


The   P ilg  rim    Faith 

ploration  of  unknown  lands,  in  the  creation 
of  written  forms  for  language  and  the  fur- 
nishing of  literature  to  uncultured  races,  in 
education  and  industrial  advance,  in  ministry 
to  the  body  through  medicine  and  surgery,  in 
the  creation  of  new  social  orders,  in  the  break- 
ing down  of  barriers  between  nations  and 
races  aUd  in  the  lifting  of  the  level  of  national 
life.  It  is  a  record  of  achievement  which 
thrills  the  reader  with  a  sense  of  the  universal 
worth  and  meaning  of  missionary  work  and 
makes  him  grow  confident  of  the  coming  of 
the  Kingdom. 

When  Eugene  Field  wrote  *'Jest  'fore 
Christmas"  he  put  the  ordinary  small  boy's 
idea  of  the  missionary  into  verse  as  follows : 

"Gran'ma  says  she  hopes  that  when  I  get  to  be  a  man 
I'll  be  a  missionarer  like  her  oldest  brother,  Dan, 
As  was  et  up  by  the  cannibuls  that  lives  on  Ceylon's  Isle, 
Where  every  prospeck  pleases,  an'  only  man  is  vile!" 

This  was  the  conventional  notion  in  the 
mind  of  every  alert  boy  a  generation  ago. 
The  missionary  appeared  to  his  imagination 
as  a  tall  man,  clad  in  a  long  black  coat,  who 
stood  under  a  banyan  tree  with  a  hymn-book 
under  his  arm  patiently  waiting  to  accomplish 
his  mission  by  becoming  the  willing  victim  of 
a  cannibal  feast.  And  this  conception  was 
shared  to  a  great  extent  by  the  public  at  large. 

Now,  however,  this  false  idea  has  been  en- 
tirely supplanted  and  we  see  the  missionary 
[254] 


The   Faith   and   Brotherhood 

as  a  man  of  affairs,  sharing  in  the  greatest 
movements  of  life  around  the  world  and  com- 
ing before  emperors  and  kings  to  be  decorated 
for  distinguished  service  to  their  people. 
The  representatives  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
have  been  conspicuous  for  the  honors  which 
they  have  received  and  for  the  good  which 
they  have  accomplished  in  the  great  philan- 
thropic and  social  movements  of  foreign 
countries. 

"Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  business? 
He  shall  stand  before  kings."  These  words 
from  the  book  of  Proverbs  came  to  Cyrus 
Hamlin  as  he  was  on  his  way  to  evening 
school  in  Portland  in  the  days  when  he  was 
struggling  for  an  education.  "Now,"  said 
he,  ''that  is  not  literally  true.  I  am  certainly 
'diligent  in  business,'  but  I  shall  never  stand 
before  a  king."  Nineteen  years  later  he 
stood  and  talked  with  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid 
in  his  palace  on  the  Bosphorus. 

The  story  of  his  battle  to  gain  a  foothold 
for  his  mission  in  Turkey  is  one  of  the  thrill- 
ing tales  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith.  But  it  was 
later — during  the  Crimean  War — that  he  first 
began  to  win  the  attention  of  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe.  Thousands  of  British  sol- 
diers were  dying  of  neglect  in  the  hospitals 
at  Scutari,  while  those  who  survived  were 
loathing  the  miserable  sour  bread  that  was 
given  them.  From  the  little  bakery  con- 
[255] 


The   Pilgrim   Faith 

nected  with  Ms  mission  Dr.  Hamlin  began 
sending  them  good  bread.  Before  long  the 
supply  that  he  fDrnished  amounted  to  12,000 
loaves  daily.  He  next  turned  his  attention 
to  washing  soldiers'  clothing.  Out  of  some 
beer  casks  he  constructed  washing  machines, 
and  from  the  pirofits  of  his  laundry  business 
he  built  churches.  When  cholera  broke  out 
in  the  army  he  supplied  a  medicine,  since 
known  as  *' Hamlin  Mixture,"  which  cured 
many  who  were  stricken. 

These  were  some  of  the  deeds  that  brought 
Hamlin  recognition  and  gained  for  him  an 
audience  with  the  ruler  of  the  land. 

Eecently  Turkey  has  honored  Dr.  F.  D. 
Shepard,  an  American  Board  missionary, 
who,  in  1910,  was  given  the  decoration  of 
Mejidieh  of  the  Third  Class  as  an  apprecia- 
tion of  his  long  serAdce  for  the  people  of 
Turkey,  and  particularly  in  recognition  of 
his  labors  during  the  crisis  in  Cilicia. 

When,  in  the  late  nineties,  India  was  devas- 
tated by  plague  and  famine  and  the  terror- 
stricken  people  wandered  from  place  to  place 
in  search  of  food  and  help,  Dr.  Eobert  A. 
Hume  threw  himself  into  the  work  of  reliev- 
ing their  sufferings.  The  news  of  the  dis- 
tress of  the  thousands  of  starving  folk  was 
sent  to  America  and  *'The  Advance,"  '^The 
Congregationalist"  and  ''The  Christian 
Herald ' '  started  relief  funds.  Dr.  Hume  was 
made  Executive  Secretary  of  the  American 
[256] 


The   Faith   and   Brotherhood 

Indian  Relief  Committee,  the  body  to  whose 
charge  the  administration  of  contributions 
was  committed.  His  work  in  this  capacity 
was  so  eflQcient  that  it  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  English  Viceroy,  who  recommended  him 
to  the  queen  for  the  Kaisar-i-Hind  gold  medal, 
a  mark  of  honor  which  is  given  only  in  recog- 
nition of  especially  distinguished  public  serv- 
ice. Dr.  Hume  is  one  of  perhaps  a  dozen  men 
who  have  received  this  medal.  His  decoration 
was  made  especially  notable  by  the  fact  that  it 
was  one  of  the  last  acts  of  Queen  Victoria. 

Since  that  time  the  British  Government  in 
India  has  seen  in  the  services  of  Rev.  John 
P.  Jones,  another  missionary  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith,  sufficient  merit  and  distinction  to  ren- 
der him  worthy  of  the  great  honor  bestowed 
upon  Hume. 

Among  those  missionaries  who  have  ren- 
dered great  service  to  the  cause  of  world 
progress  and  have  stood  before  Kings,  Hon. 
Peter  Parker  of  China  holds  a  place  of  pre- 
eminence. He  went  to  Canton  in  1834  as  a 
medical  missionary  and  during  his  first  six 
years  of  service,  in  spite  of  the  bitter  hostility 
shown  by  the  Chinese,  he  treated  over  12,000 
cases  of  disease.  In  1844  there  came  to  Dr. 
Parker  an  urgent  call  to  assist  the  United 
States  Minister,  Hon.  Caleb  Cushing,  in  nego- 
tiating a  treaty  with  China,  and  he  gave  up 
his  distinctly  missionary  work  to  become  Sec- 
retary to  the  United  States  Legation.  A 
[257] 


The   Pilgrim    F  aith 

little  later  he  was  to  become  United  States 
Commissioner  to  revise  the  treaty  between 
this  country  and  China. 

It  was  with  reluctance  that  Dr.  Parker  re- 
tired from  his  work  as  a  missionary  to  under- 
take services  of  diplomacy,  but  through  them 
he  was  able  to  promote  in  a  large  way  the 
cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life.  In 
rearranging  the  treaty  with  China,  Dr. 
Parker  was  able  to  open  the  Empire  to  the 
gospel  message  as  well  as  to  commerce  and 
general  civilization. 

Another  man  who,  like  Dr.  Parker,  worked 
in  the  great  task  of  opening  the  Orient  to 
the  world  was  Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams.  In 
1853  this  Christian  statesman  left  his  field  in 
China  to  accompany  Commodore  Perry  as 
interpreter  on  the  epoch-making  expedition 
that  resulted  in  the  opening  of  the  ports  of 
Japan  to  American  commerce  and  Ameri- 
can missionaries.  In  1855  Dr.  Williams 
became  secretary  and  interpreter  of  the 
American  Legation  in  Japan,  and  for  twenty 
years  he  rendered  distinguished  service  in 
this  honorable  position.  During  this  time 
he  was  brought  into  intimate  relations  with 
the  leading  representatives  of  European  na- 
tions and  bore  a  hand  in  settling  many  ques- 
tions involving  vital  diplomatic  interests. 

The  Boxer  uprising,  with  its  terrible  ex- 
periences and  its  long  list  of  tragedies, 
brought  to  light  many  instances  of  heroic  de- 
[258] 


The   F  aitli   and  Brotherhood 

votion  and  able  management  of  affairs  on 
the  part  of  men  and  women  of  the  Pilgrim 
Faith ;  but  none  of  the  missionaries  rendered 
greater  service  than  did  Dr.  William  Scott 
Ament.  He  himself  narrowly  escaped  death, 
and  after  the  outbreak  had  ceased,  in  the  face 
of  bitter  criticism  from  those  who  did  not  un- 
derstand the  conditions,  he  maintained  a 
great  work  of  relief  and  reconstruction.  His 
service  won  the  full  approval  not  only  of  the 
Chinese  officials,  but  also  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  foreign  powers,  with  whom  he 
was  associated.  He  settled  with  such  justice 
and  mercy  the  cases  of  those  who  had  claims 
for  indemnity  that  he  received  from  delighted 
clients — most  of  whom  were  not  Christians — 
many  presents  of  banners  and  umbrellas, 
which  they  gave  him  as  expressions  of  their 
gratitude  and  confidence.  These  odd  gifts 
lined  the  walls  of  the  American  chapel  at 
Peking. 

"The  Lady  of  the  Lamp,"  as  Florence 
Nightingale  was  called  by  the  soldiers  of  the 
Crimea  because  of  her  night-long  vigils 
among  the  sick  and  wounded  found  her  count- 
erpart during  the  Chino-Japanese  War  in 
Miss  Eliza  Talcott  of  Japan.  Miss  Talcott 
was  one  of  the  first  two  workers  sent  to  that 
country  by  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions. 
When  the  War  broke  out  and  the  military 
hospitals  at  Hiroshima  became  crowded  with 
sufferers,  Miss  Talcott,  then  a  woman  of 
[259] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

threescore  years,  threw  herself  into  the  work 
of  relief.  Her  gentleness,  her  unceasing  de- 
votion, her  skill  in  caring  for  the  sick  and 
wounded  and  her  tender  words  of  sympathy 
and  comfort  won  for  her  the  title  of  "the 
Florence  Nightingale  of  Japan." 

In  1909  the  Emperor  of  Japan  recognized 
the  services  of  a  man  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith 
when  he  conferred  upon  Dr.  John  Hyde  De- 
Forest  the  Fourth  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun. 
This  decoration  was  given  for  the  aid  which 
Dr.  DeForest  had  rendered  among  Japanese 
soldiers  in  Manchuria  during  the  war  with 
Eussia  and  for  his  relief  work  during  the 
famine.  He  received  also  the  highest  honors 
in  his  own  city,  Sendai.  One  of  the  Japanese 
daily  papers  expressed  the  popular  senti- 
ment with  regard  to  Dr.  DeForest  when  it 
said:  "We  extend  to  Dr.  DeForest,  our 
now  national  benefactor,  warm  welcome 
hands." 

Another  distinguished  name  in  the  list  of 
the  men  and  women  of  the  Pilgrim  Faith  who 
have  received  recognition  for  services  outside 
of  their  distinctly  missionary  labors  is  that 
of  Dr.  John  C.  Berry.  Under  date  of  No- 
vember 9,  1912,  the  Japanese  Ambassador  to 
the  United  States,  Viscount  Chinda,  trans- 
mitted to  Dr.  Berry  the  information  that  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  had  been  pleased  to  con- 
fer upon  him  "the  Imperial  Order  of  the 
[260] 


The   Faith    and   Brotherhood 

Sacred  Treasure  of  the  Third  Class,  in  recog- 
nition of  your  eminent  and  disinterested 
services,  during  your  sojourn  in  Japan,  look- 
ing to  the  promotion  of  her  material  well- 
being,  notably  your  signal  contribution  to- 
wards the  improvement  of  medical  and  sani- 
tary organizations  and  of  the  system  of  pris- 
ons, in  which  you  have  taken  keen  and  kindly 
interest,  to  the  grateful  memory  of  the 
Japanese  people." 

On  May  16,  1913,  Eev.  Daniel  Crosby 
Greene,  D.D.,  of  Tokio,  received  the  decora- 
tion of  the  Third  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun, 
the  highest  mark  of  imperial  esteem  that  can 
be  conferred  on  a  civilian  residing  in  Japan. 
The  honor  was  bestowed  upon  Dr.  Greene  for 
his  ''valuable  services  in  promoting  interna- 
tional relations  between  Japan  and  America, 
and  in  introducing  a  knowledge  of  Japan  to 
other  countries  while  he  has  been  engaged  in 
the  propagation  of  Christianity." 

In  little  parishes  hidden  among  our  far- 
sweeping  hills  or  dotting  our  rolling  prairies 
in  the  churches  of  the  larger  centers  of  the 
country  and  in  great  cities  and  distant  out- 
posts in  foreign  lands  the  Pilgrim  Faith  is 
proving  true  to  the  Apostolic  mission  of  serv- 
ing the  nations.  With  faith  and  hope  and 
courage  the  Congregationalists  are  following 
the  light  which  their  first  pastor  dared  to 
trust  and  with  broad  Christian  spirit  they 
[261] 


The   Pilgrim    Faith 

unite  in  the  unwavering  belief  tliat  God 
''made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  to  dwell 
on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  And  in  that 
belief  they  pray: 

"Thy  Kingdom  come, 
Thy  will  be  done  on  Earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven." 


[262] 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Lyman,   198 

Academy,  The,  94 

Advance,  The,  199 

Alaska,    124 

Albany  Council,  1852,  37,  38 

Ament,  Dr.  William  Scott, 
259 

American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign 
Missions,  The,  organ- 
ized,  153 

American  Home  Missionary 
Society,  The,  organized, 
112 

American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation, The,  organized, 
140 

Andover  House,  251 

Angell,  James  B.,  99 

Anti-Slavery,  247 

Arminianism,   176,   177 

Armstrong,  Gen.  Samuel  C, 
95 

Atkinson,  Rev.  George  H., 
92,  124 

Atonement,   184 

Austerfield,  212 

Awakening,  The  Great,  43, 
177 

Awakening,  The  Second,  49 

Bacon,  Rev.  David,  111 
Bacon,  Leonard,  197,  226-228 
Baptists,     etc..     Persecution 

of,  26 
Barrow,  Henry,  8,  9 
Barton,  James  L.,  253 
Bay  Psalm  Book,   195,  196 
Beecher,   Henry   Ward,    197, 

199,  200,  232-235 


[263] 


Bellamy,  Joseph,  180,  181 
Berry,  Dr.  John  C,  260 
Bible,  Translated,  204-208 
Bingham,  Hiram,  Jr.,  205 
Boston,  Founding  of,  23 
Bradford  History,  The,   193, 

194 
Bradford,    William,    10,    13, 

212-215 
Brainerd,  David,  133,  134 
Brewster,    William,    10,    13, 

212 
Browne,  Robert,  8 
Bushnell,  Horace,   187,  200, 

223-226 

Calvinism,  59,  175,  177,  181, 

188 
Carver,  John,  13,  213 
Channing,  William  E.,   185 
Charitable     and     Corrective 

Organizations,  246 
Chicago   Commons,  251 
Clark,  F.  E.,  56 
Clark's  Island,  Pilgrims  At, 

3 
Coan,  Titus,  158 
Congregational  Church,  The 

First,   10 
Congregationalist,  The,  199 
Connecticut  Colony,  24 
Connecticut,        Constitution 

of   1639,  64 
Connecticut  Evangelical 

Magazine,   198 
Connecticut,  Missionary  So- 
ciety of,  108,  110  ' 
Conversion,   176 
Cotton,  Rev.  John,  65,  215 
Cutler,   Rev.  Manasseh,  07 


Index 


Dakotas,  Mission  to,  141 
Dartmouth  College,  83 
De  Forest,  Dr.  John  H.,  260 
Denmark,   Iowa,    Ordination 

Service,  119,  154 
Dexter,  Henry  Martyn,  192, 

236-238 
Doshisha,   164 
Dwight,  Pres.   Timothy,  50, 

197,  220-222 

Education,  79 

Education         in         Foreign 

Lands.  96 
Edwards,   Jonathan,   43,   47, 

133,     177-180,     200-202, 

218-220 
Eliot,  John,  129,  204 
Emmons,  Nathanael,   185 
Evangelism,  42,  49 

Finney,  Charles  G.,  52,  85 
Fiske,  Rev.  Pliny,  165 
Foreign    Missions,     changed 

conception,  252 
Foreign      Missions.      organ- 
ized, 151 
Foster,  Frank  H.,   173,  186 
Fuller,  Samuel,   13,  23 
Gladden,   Washington,   197 
Goodell,  William,  206 
Greene,  Rev.  Daniel  Crosby, 

261 
Greenwood,  John,  8,  9 
Griffin,  Rev.  E.  D.,  49 

Half- Way  Covenant,  176 
Hall,  Gordon,  154,   155,  205 
Hamlin,    Rev.     Cyrus,     168, 

255,  256 
Hardy,  Alpheus,  239,  240 
Harvard   College,   81 
Hoar,  George  F.,   193 
Hobart,  Rev.  L.  Smith,  114 
Holland,  Pilgrims  in,  9,  11, 

12 
Holland,  Reasons  for  Leav- 
ing, 41 


[264] 


Home  Missionary  Work,  34, 

42,    108 
Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  24,  62 
Hopkins,  Mark,  99 
Hopkins,  Samuel,  181,  182 
Howard,  Gen.  Oliver  0.,  145 
Hume,  Dr.  Robert  A.,  256 

Illinois  Band,  113 

Illinois  College,  114 

Illinois,  First  Congrega- 
tional  Church,   38 

Independent,   The,    199 

Indians,  Attitude  Toward, 
42,   129 

Infant  Baptism,  176 

Iowa,  68 

Iowa  Band,  70,  87,  116 

Japan,  161 

Jones,  Rev.  John  P.,  257 

Judson,  Adoniram,  153,  154 

Kansas  Band,  121 
Kapiolani,   159 

Laud,  Archbishop,  30 
Leyden,  Pilgrims  at,   11 
Literature,  The  Faith  in,  191 
Lyon,  Mary,  101 

"Magnalia,"  195,  217 
Mason,  Lowell,  197 
Massachusetts       Missionary 

Magazine,   198 
Mather,    Cotton,    195,    215- 

218 
Mayflower,  The,   13,  22 
Mayflower  Compact,  The,  60 
Mayhew,  Thomas,   132 
Michigan  Pioneers,    114 
Michigan,  University  of,  91 
Mills,   Samuel  J.,   152,   156 
Missionary  Herald,  The,  198 
Missouri,     First     Congrega- 
tional  Church,   120 
Mohammedans,         Missions 
among  the^  165 


Index 


Moody,  Dwight  L.,  53,  197 
Morals,  Decline  in,  28 

Nebraska,  122 

Neesima,  The  Story  of,  162 

Negro,      Attitude       toward, 

129,  143 
Nettleton,   Rev.   Asahel,   51, 

197 
New  Haven  Colony,  24 

Oberlin  College,  83 

Obookiah,  Henry,  156 

"Of    Plymouth    Plantation," 

192 
Ohio,    First    Congregational 

Church,  110 
Ordinance  of   1787,  66 
Oregon,  92 
Outlook,  The.   199 

Pacific,  The,  199 
Pacific  Universitv,  93 
Palmer,  Rev.  Ray,  196 
Park,  Edwards  A.,  187,  229- 

231 
Parker,  Peter,  257,  258 
Pearsons,  Dr.  D.  K.,  101 
Peet,  Rev.  Stephen,  115 
Penry,   John,    8,    9 
Persecution  by  Pilgrims,  26 
Phelps,  Austin,  201 
Phillips  Academy,  Andover, 

98 
Pierce,  Rev.  John  D..  90 
Pilgrim  Faith,  The,  14 
Pilgrim  Hymnal,  The,  198 
Pilgrim  Polity.   16.  17 
Pilgrim  Theology,   15 
Plan  of  Union,  32,  34,  110 
Plymouth,  Landing  at,  14 
Porter,  Rev.  Jeremiah,  113 
Post,  Rev.  Truman  M.,   120 
Pratt,  Prof.  Waldo  S.,  198 
Presbyterians,    Union    with, 

32 
Puritan  Immigration,  22 
Puritan,      Origin      of      the 

Name,  6 


[265] 


Puritans   Become   Congrega- 
tional, 23 

Revivals   1740,  43 
Richards,    Rev.    Charles   H., 

198 
Riggs,  Elias,  207 
Robert  College,  168 
Robinson,  John,  10,  12 

Salem     Ordination    Service, 

154 
Salter,  Dr.  William,  70 
Sandwich    Islands,    Mission- 
ary Work  in,   156 
Saybrook  Council,  27 
Scrooby,   Church  at,   10 
Separatists,    Origin    of    the 

Name,  7 
Sewall,  Samuel,   194 
Shepard,  Dr.  F.  V..  256 
Social    Settlements,    248-253 
Soldiers,       Revolutionary, 

from        Congregational 

Churches,  31 
South  End  House,  251 
Spalding,   Rev.   H.   H.,   139 
Standish,  Miles,   13 
Stockbridge  Indians,   177 
Stoddard,  Rev.  Solomon,  66, 

176 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  197, 

202 
Synod    of    1637,    1647    and 

1708,  26.  27 
Syrian     Protestant     College 

at  Beirut.  169 

Talcott,  Miss  Eliza,  259 
Talladega  College,   146 
Taylor,   Graham,   249-251 
Taylor,  Nathaniel  W.,  186 
Taylor,  Samuel  H.,  98 
Theologv,     The     New     Eng- 
land, 173,  174,  175,  182, 
183,   188 
Treadwell,     Governor    John, 

153 
Turkey,  Missions  in,  165 


I  nde  OS 


Turner,  Rev.  Asa,  69 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  202 
Unitarians,  184 
Universalism,  183 

Vernon,   Rev.    Ambrose   W., 

198 
Vote,  The  Right  to,  24 

Ward,  Joseph.  71,  86 
Washington,  Booker,  T.,  96 
Westminster    Confession,   33 
Williams,  Roger,  130 


William  S.  Wells,  205,  258 
Whitefield,  George,   44 
Whitman,  Dr.  Marcus,   123, 

139 
Wisconsin    Home    Missions, 

115 
Wise,   Rev.   John,   "Vindica- 
tion  of   Churches,"   28 
Women,  IMucation  of,  101 


Yale  College,  50,  175 
Yale  College  Founded,  82 
Yale  Washington  Band,  124 


[266] 


Date  Due 

Wr  " 

■  ,f, 

i, 

\ 

wmm' 

^ 

